Equity indices on downturn, private banks top losers
Feb 18, 2021
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 18 : Equity benchmark indices were on a downswing during afternoon on Thursday with heavy selling over financial and private banking counters.
At 12:50 pm, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 390 points or 0.75 per cent at 51,314 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 105 points or 0.69 per cent to 15,104.
Except for Nifty PSU bank which gained by 5.4 per cent, most other sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty financial service down by 1.4 per cent, private bank by 1.3 per cent and auto by 1 per cent.
Among stocks, ICICI Bank lost by 2.6 per cent to Rs 639.95 per share while Kotak Mahindra Bank was down by 2.4 per cent to Rs 1,942.15.
Bajaj Finance slipped by 2.2 per cent, home loan lender HDFC by 2 per cent, Eicher Motors by 2.4 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra by 1.5 per cent and Nestle India by 2.1 per cent.
However, energy majors gained with GAIL up by 8 per cent to Rs 145.20 per share. ONGC too was up by 7.7 per cent, IndianOil Corporation by 3.9 per cent, Bharat Petroleum Corporation by 2.2 per cent, Coal India by 2.8 per cent and NTPC by 2.7 per cent.
Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed as lingering pandemic concerns pushed against stronger economic data with little firm direction from Wall Street.
