Sensex Slumps Over 400 Points, Nifty Near 11,300; HDFC Bank Leads Decline

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 Indexes extended declines weighed down by losses in HDFC Bank which came under heavy selling pressure after the country's largest private sector lender said that its bad loans rose in quarter ended June 2019. Kotak Mahindra Bank also added to the weakness in markets ahead of its June quarter earnings due later in the day. On the flipside, Reliance Industries was outperforming the benchmarks after its profit of Rs 10,104 crore surpassed estimates compiled by Reuters in June quarter. The Sensex fell as much as 446 points to hit intraday low of 37,890.32 and the NSE Nifty Index touched low of 11,301.

As of 1:24 pm, the Sensex slumped 1.10 per cent or 420 points to 37,917 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index dropped 0.95 per cent or 109 points to 11,310.

Bajaj Finserv was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, down 6.12 per cent at Rs 7,103. HDFC Bank dropped 3.7 per cent after its non-performing assets as a percentage of total advances rose to 1.4 per cent from 1.36 per cent in the previous quarter.

HDFC Bank's bad loans rose on account of higher NPAs in the agriculture segment which came in at 1.17 per cent versus 1.09 per cent in the same quarter last year, the bank said in an exchange filing.

Bajaj Finance, Eicher Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Titan and State Bank of India were also among the losers.

On the flipside, Yes Bank snapped its three-day losing streak after the shares surged 5.5 per cent to Rs 87.80. Vedanta, Zee Entertainment, Sun Pharma, Bharti Infratel and Maruti Suzuki were among the gainers.

Twelve of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE were trading lower led by the S&P BSE Realty and Finance Indexes 2.5 per cent fall. Bankex, Consumer Durables and FMCG indexes also dropped between 1 and 1.5 per cent each.

On the other hand, S&P BSE Metal Index was top gainer, up 1.15 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing selling pressure as the S&P BSE MidCap Index declined 1 per cent and the S&P BSE SmallCap Index fell 1.5 per cent.

The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 1,733 shares were declining while 617 were advancing on the BSE.