HDFC Bank is trading weaker by 2% at Rs 711 in an otherwise firm market on reports that MSCI has further reduced the weightage of the bank in MSCI India Index. MSCI has cut the weightage as foreign shareholding in HDFC Bank has exceeded the permissible limit.
The stock opened at Rs 715 and touched a low of Rs 707 on the NSE. A combined 932,000 shares changed hands on the counter so far on the NSE and BSE.
In December last year, the Reserve Bank of India had restricted foreign institutional investors (FIIs) from buying additional shares in HDFC Bank, the country's second-largest private lender, as their shareholding had exceeded the limit.
Meanwhile, the stock has underperformed the market by falling nearly 5% in the past five trading sessions from Rs 742 on April 9, after the bank said that FIIs have reduced their stake by about one percentage point during the recently concluded quarter. The benchmark CNX Nifty has declined 0.86% and Bank Nifty by 2% during the same period.
The FII stake in HDFC Bank has declined to 34.08% in March 2014 quarter from a record high of 34.92% at the end of December 2013 quarter.