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Equity indices fall by 0.5%, banking stocks among worst hit

Equity indices finished in red on Monday with the benchmark BSE sensex falling close to 200 points, dragged by banking, auto and financial stocks. The 30-share BSE index fell 202.05 points or 0.49% to close at 41,055.69.

Equity indices fall by 0.5%, banking stocks among worst hit
Author
Mumbai, First Published Feb 17, 2020, 5:17 PM IST

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices ended lower on Monday with investors trying to gauge the impact of Supreme Court verdict on telecom operators regarding the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues and the consequent result on banking sector.

The apex court last week directed telcos to clear their dues totalling nearly Rs 1 lakh crore to the government by March 17 and threatened of contempt proceedings if they did not. The BSE S&P Sensex closed 202 points lower at 41,056 while the Nifty 50 slipped by 68 points to 12,046. Experts said that bank stocks will remain under pressure given high inflation and no possibility of an interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the near-term.

Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty PSU bank down by 2.96%.

Among stocks, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, State Bank of India and Yes Bank closed in the negative zone. In fact, Yes Bank fell by nearly 4% to Rs 37.35.

The other prominent losers were Coal India which dipped by 3.8%, ONGC which lost 3.2% and Cipla which closed 3.1% lower.

However, Titan, GAIL, Nestle India, Vedanta and Tata Consultancy Services gained by thin margins.

Meanwhile, Asian shares moved toward a three-week top as Chinese efforts to cushion the blow from a coronavirus outbreak cheered investors.

But Japanese stocks faltered amid growing recession risks. Japan's Nikkei tumbled by 0.69% after the country's economy shrank at the fastest pace in the December quarter since the second quarter of 2014.

The Shanghai Composite index added 2.28% after the country's central bank lowered one of its key interest rates and injected more liquidity into the system.

With ANI Inputs 

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