Bank stocks fall from day's high; ICICI Bank, Axis Bank down 1.6%

Market

The Nifty Bank index declined sharply around 11 am on March 12. After opening flat, the banking index rose nearly 500 points but squandered the gains to trade 0.3 percent lower at 47,210 points.

Barring HDFC Bank, lenders such as Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, and ICICI Bank saw a sudden decline in their share prices.

The much-awaited inflation data due to be released after market hours on March 12 and the weekly expiry of banking stocks on March 13 could have affected the banking stocks, said Shreyansh V Shah, Research Analyst, StoxBox.

Axis Bank which had hit an intraday high of Rs. 1,121.40, were down over 1 percent at Rs. 1,092, and ICICI Bank which had rose as much as Rs. 1,094.80, was down 0.6 percent at Rs. 1,071 as of 12.06 pm.

ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Axis Bank which were down 0.5-1.3 percent were the top losers amongst banking stocks.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, which fell as low as Rs. 1,707.35, came off lows and traded 0.5 percent lower at Rs. 1,720.

The State Bank of India, which had declined as much as Rs. 761.10, was down 1.3 percent at Rs. 763. Weakness in SBI also dragged down Nifty PSU Bank which was down 2.4 percent.

HDFC Bank, on the other hand, traded 2.3 percent higher at Rs. 1,459. Shares of the bank have declined by over 10 percent in the past six months while gaining 5 percent in the past one month.

While both Nifty Bank and Nifty PSU Bank were down, Nifty Private Bank remained flat.