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.

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