Bank Stocks In The Limelight

Bank stocks yesterday witnessed hectic activity on major bourses on account of the credit policy announced by the RBI. However, key bank scrips, with the exception of HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, ended the day at lower levels as compared with the previous closing.

Bank scrips came under sharp selling pressure just prior to the credit policy being announced. With the NSE being closed for an hour, operators did not want to be caught on the wrong foot in case the policy fell short of general positions. This coupled with the fact that expectations from the credit policy had already been factored into the scrip prices sparked off a temporary selling spree, a dealer at an institutional broking house said.

 

The SBI scrip was the hardest hit closing on the NSE at Rs 287.50, a dip of Rs 7.20 over the previous close. This effectively pared all gains the scrip notched up on Monday. Though other bank stocks like the Bank of India and the Bank of Baroda witnessed a fall in prices, trading volumes at these counters rose sharply. The Bank of India scrip witnessed trading volumes of five lakh shares on the BSE and nine lakh shares on the NSE. The scrip closed at Rs 51.90 on the NSE, the same as its previous close. The Bank of Baroda scrip closed at Rs 132 on the BSE, a loss of Rs 2.50 over the previous close.

However, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank bucked the general trend. The ICICI Bank scrip closed at Rs 52.75 (+Rs 3.25). Yesterday, 17 lakh shares changed hands on the NSE. The HDFC Bank stock closed marginally higher than its previous close with 7.5 lakh shares changing hands.

The markets remained indifferent to the credit policy with both the BSE and the NSE indices closing lower than the previous levels. The real impact of the credit policy will only be felt today after the finer details of the policy are known. There is still an element of uncertainty regarding the policy, a dealer at a leading FII broking house said.

The Bajaj Auto stock recovered lost ground on the NSE yesterday as it was the last day of the settlement on the exchange. The scrip closed at Rs 621.15, a gain of Rs 7.80 over the previous close. " With the results not turning out to be as bad as expected, short sellers at the counter were trapped," said a dealer at a broking house.

The ICICI Bank witnessed good trading interest in the depository segment yesterday. 58,480 shares of the stock changed hands at an average price of Rs 50.16 per share. So far, this is the largest number of shares traded in a single scrip on any given day.

Among the major losers on the NSE yesterday were BSES and GE Shipping scrips. While the BSES scrip fell by 5.68 per cent to close at Rs 195, the GE Shipping scrip lost 4.97 per cent over the previous level to close at Rs 50.65.