Sensex down 517 pts; PSU banks under pressure

The key equity indices continued to trade with significant losses in morning trade due to geopolitical tensions arose after Iran's attack on Israel. The Nifty traded below the 22,400 level. PSU bank shares declined for the second day in a row.

At 10:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 517.09 points or 0.70% to 73,727.81. The Nifty 50 index declined 146.90 points or 0.65% to 22,372.50.

The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index lost 1.12% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 1.40%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 639 shares rose and 2,987 shares fell. A total of 143 shares were unchanged.

 

Economy:

On the macro front, retail inflation eased to a five-month low in March on the marginally moderating food inflation, while industrial output growth rebounded to a four-month high in February, led by robust infra sectors and consumer durables output. India's retail inflation eased to 4.85% on an annual basis in March as against 5.09% in the previous month, data showed on Friday. Meanwhile, the industrial production surged to a four-month high of 5.7% in February compared with 4.3% in the previous month.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty PSU Bank index fell 1.76% to 7,072.35. The index slipped 2.9% in two trading sessions.

Central Bank of India (down 3.83%), Indian Overseas Bank (down 3.74%), UCO Bank (down 3.63%), Bank of Maharashtra (down 3.62%) and Bank of India (down 2.96%), Punjab & Sind Bank (down 2.72%), Union Bank of India (down 2.18%), Punjab National Bank (down 1.85%), Bank of Baroda (down 1.85%) and Canara Bank (down 1.69%) edged lower.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Mphasis shed 0.56%. The company said that it has announced a multi-year global strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to launch Gen AI foundry for financial services.

Engineers India declined 1.99%. The firm said that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Detect Technologies for real time artificial intelligence (AI) based monitoring of construction sites.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News