Indian shares ended lower yesterday, dragged down by financial stocks after Axis Bank reported slump in quarterly net profit on Tuesday.
The Nifty closed 0.88% lower at 8,615.25 after falling 1.09% earlier in the session.
The 30-share S&P BSE Sensex closed below the 28,000-mark after funds and retail investors hit the sell button tracking a sluggish global trend due to tumbling oil prices.
The Sensex plunged 254.91 points, or 0.91%, to close at 27,836.51 points yesterday.
Tata Motors and Tata Steel tumbled more than 4% each, while Indian Hotels fell to a five-month low.
Mistry in an e-mail on Tuesday to the board of group holding company Tata Sons said he inherited a debt-laden enterprise saddled with losses.
Axis Bank slumped the most in more than a year after the lender posted a 83% plunge in second-quarter earnings.
The bank set aside Rs36.2bn to cover soured loans, up from Rs7.07bn a year ago.
The Sensex has rallied 21% from a February low. The index is valued at 16.3 times projected 12-month earnings, compared with a five-year average of 14.4 times. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is valued at a multiple of 12.5. Hindustan Unilever, India’s biggest household products maker, rose 1.3% after its second-quarter profit beat estimates.
Meanwhile the rupee yesterday erased all gains and closed little changed against the US dollar, tracking the losses in local equity and Asian currencies markets.
The rupee closed at 66.83 against the US dollar, down 0.01% from its previous close of 66.83.
The home currency opened at 66.81 and touched a high of 66.76. So far this year, it has fallen 1.15%. The benchmark 10-year government bond yield closed at 6.774% compared with Tuesday’s close of 6.774%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Asian currencies closed lower.
The Thai baht was down 0.36%, Philippines peso 0.22%, Chinese offshore 0.1%, Japanese yen 0.07%, South Korean won 0.06%, Malaysian ringgit 0.04% and Singapore dollar 0.04%. However, Chinese offshore was up 0.17% and Taiwanese dollar 0.15%. Bank of England governor Mark Carney said there were limits to the central bank’s ability to ignore the effect of the currency’s slide on inflation.
