Sensex ends around 34,300 mark; Nifty near 10,550; PNB crashes 13%

All that happened in the markets today.

The benchmark indices ended higher on Thursday, taking cues from its key Asian counterparts. The S&P BSE Sensex had hit a high of 34,585 in intra-day deals, but trimmed gains as trade progressed during the day.

Among individual stocks, Punjab National Bank (PNB) countinued its journey south on Thursday with the stock slipping nearly 8%. The management tried to assauge investor concerns a day after the state-owned bank said that it had detected some fraudulent and unauthorised transactions worth about Rs 1.13 trillion ($1,771.69 million) at one of its branches in Mumbai. 

Punjab National Bank MD & CEO Sunil Mehta on Thursday made it clear that the bank will not spare anyone, senior or junior, who was involved in the fraud, saying the second-largest bank will honour all their bona fide commitments. He also said that the scam was detected by bank officials for the first time on January 25 and they had reported about it to the concerned agencies.

GLOBAL MARKETS

In global markets, Asian stocks gained on Thursday after Wall Street brushed aside strong US inflation data and surged, a counterintuitive move that also saw the dollar pinned at two-week lows even as Treasury yields jumped in anticipation of a quicker pace of US interest rate hikes.

Japanese stocks were higher despite fresh gains for the yen, which had sent the Nikkei Stock Average to four-month lows on both Tuesday and Wednesday. The index was up 1.6% after having fallen in 12 of the prior 15 sessions. Financials were among the big gainers as US Treasury yields hit fresh multiyear highs Wednesday. That included Dai-ichi Life, which jumped 3.7% to erase the week’s decline.

(with wire inputs)

3:49 PM

Sectoral watch: Nifty PSU Bank cracks over 1%

3:46 PM

Sensex losers and gainers

3:42 PM

Sector watch

3:35 PM

Market at close

The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 35,297, up 141 points while the broader Nifty50 index settled at 10,545, up 44 points.

 

 

 

3:08 PM

PNB Scam: Will not spare anyone who was involved, says MD CEO Sunil Mehta

Punjab National Bank MD & CEO Sunil Mehta on Thursday made it clear that the bank will not spare anyone, senior or junior, who was involved in the fraud, saying the second-largest bank will honour all their bona fide commitments.

 

He also said that the scam was detected by bank officials for the first time on January 25 and they had reported about it to the concerned agencies. "Working to bring the perpetrators to book. We are trying to safeguard the financial interests of the bank," the PNB MD said while addressing the media in the national capital. READ MORE

3:03 PM

Shree Cement gains on commencement of new cement grinding unit

 

Shree Cement has moved higher by 4% to Rs 17,550 on BSE in noon deal after the company announced that it has commissioned new cement grinding unit in Rajasthan. READ MORE

2:51 PM

Unichem Labs falls 9% as stock trades ex-share buyback

 

Unichem Laboratories has dipped 9% to Rs 344 on BSE in intra-day trade after the stock of pharmaceutical company turned ex-share buyback today. The company has fixed February 16, 2018 as the record date for the purpose of buyback of equity shares.

 

The board of Unichem Laboratories on January 8 had approved buyback of 20.6 million equity shares at a price of Rs 430 per share through the tender offer route. READ MORE

2:50 PM

PNB Fraud: Stock of Punjab National bank crashes 12%

2:46 PM

Sectoral Watch: Nifty PSU Bank down over 1.5%

2:41 PM

Why banks will likely fail to recover Rs 3 trillion from loan defaulters

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) new framework for stressed loans that would classify any default in one lender bank as a default in all other lenders’ accounts has been labelled by the government as a way to speed up the bad loan resolution process. While this may help in cleaning up the books of many banks that have borne the brunt of loan defaulters, the amount of money recovered by banks to date through insolvency proceedings seems to indicate that banks might have to write off billions of dollars’ worth of loans in the times to come. READ MORE

2:40 PM

Market check

Index	Current	Pt. Change	% Change
S&P BSE SENSEX	34,330.77	+174.82	+0.51
S&P BSE SENSEX 50	11,013.81	+58.31	+0.53
S&P BSE SENSEX Next 50	34,670.30	-233.89	-0.67
S&P BSE 100	10,949.34	+37.11	+0.34
S&P BSE Bharat 22 Index	3,686.33	+10.12	+0.28

(Source: BSE)

2:38 PM

PNB Fraud: Won't hesitate from forensic audit if need arises, says PNB MD & CEO

2:37 PM

PNB Fraud: No direction from RBI in this matter so far, says PNB MD & CEO

2:37 PM

PNB Fraud: Recovery process has been initiated, says PNB MD & CEO

2:36 PM

PNB Fraud: Nirav Modi has written to us on a repayment plan, says PNB MD & CEO