Banking stocks slump amid weak market, profit taking

Banking stocks today faced heavy selling pressure and fell by 1-3 per cent on profit booking in a weak market.
The banking index settled nearly 2 per cent down, with a heavy plunge in share prices of Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank.
Other leading lenders like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI also saw their stocks plummet during today's trading session.
Among bank scrips, Punjab National Bank tumbled the most 3.97 per cent, followed by Bank of Baroda (down 3.29 per cent), Canara Bank (2.57 per cent) and IndusInd Bank (2.55 per cent).
Shares of Axis Bank was down 2.50 per cent, Yes Bank 2.40 per cent and Bank of India fell by 2.15 per cent on the BSE.

Led by losses in these stocks, the BSE banking index fell by 1.76 per cent to end at 21,538.59 points.
Marketmen attributed the fall in the counter to profit booking and weak investor sentiments.
Meanwhile, Sensex today closed 152 points down on a late sell-off in bluechips. After the initial surge, the Sensex dropped afterwards on profit-booking to the day's low of 28,411.70 and finally ended at 28,469.67, a loss of 152.45 points or 0.53 per cent.