Sensex Falls Over 200 Points Amid Selloff

A selloff in banking stocks pulled down the BSE Sensex and the broader Nifty on Monday. The Sensex fell over 200 points below 25,400 levels, while the Nifty traded below the key 7,800 levels.

Private lender ICICI Bank led the selling in the Nifty50 index, falling nearly 4 per cent. ICICI Bank, which reported its Q4 earnings last week, put out details on corporate exposure post markets closed on Friday. The lender said 4.8 per cent of its assets, or Rs 44,000 crore, fall in below-investment grade.

ICICI Bank’s disclosure on troubled assets led many brokerages to downgrade the lender’s FY17 earnings per share estimates. Morgan Stanley cut ICICI Bank’s FY17 EPS by nearly 10 per cent, while Deutsche Bank reduced its EPS estimate by nearly 12 per cent. CLSA revised ICICI Bank’s EPS by a sharp 25 per cent.

ICICI Bank was the top Nifty loser. The selloff in the stock put pressure on other banking stocks such as state-run State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda, which are yet to report Q4 numbers.

Bajaj Auto shares fell 1.5 per cent as April sales were below estimates. NTPC, Tech Mahindra, Dr Reddy’s, Adani Ports, ITC, BHEL, Wipro and Tata Motors were other Nifty stocks that traded 1 per cent lower.

Yes Bank, which reported strong numbers last week, was the top Nifty gainer, rising 1.3 per cent.

Domestic markets were also weighed down because of selling in global stocks. Asian shares fell on Monday, uninspired after a downbeat day on Wall Street and led by a plunge in Japan’s Nikkei after the dollar notched a fresh 18-month low against the yen.

Adding to the subdued sentiment, a survey released on Sunday showed that activity in China’s manufacturing sector expanded for the second month in a row in April but only marginally, raising doubts about the sustainability of a recent pick-up in the economy.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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Source:Ndtv

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