Indian Shares End Lower As Private Banks Drag

(RTTNews) - Indian shares ended Monday's session lower, with a sharp sell-off in banking stocks and escalating Middle East tensions weighing on sentiment.

Heavyweight private banks declared mixed June quarter results, with HDFC Bank and Axis Bank reporting weak net interest margins, while ICICI Bank reported upbeat quarterly earnings, driven by stronger loan demand and lower provisions for bad loans.

Brokerages such as Citi and Bernstein aired mixed views on Kotak Mahindra Bank's Q1 show.

Apart from earnings, escalating Middle East tensions pushed Brent crude prices above $90 a barrel, raising worries about the outlook for rupee and FPI flows.

However, Brent prices slipped toward $88 a barrel later in the session after Tehran vowed to pursue diplomatic efforts alongside military response and safeguard security in the Strait of Hormuz, helping ease some supply concerns.

The benchmark BSE Sensex fell 442.93 points, or 0.57 percent, to 77,708.52, with fading enthusiasm for the AI trade in markets such as the United States, South Korea and Taiwan helping limit overall losses to some extent.

The NSE Nifty index dropped 95.80 points, or 0.39 percent, to 24,238.50 while the BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes rose half a percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

The market breadth was strong on the BSE, with 2,227 shares rising while 2,038 shares declined and 249 shares closed unchanged.

Axis Bank and HDFC Bank both fell over 5 percent while TCS, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Maruti Suzuki India dropped 1-2 percent.

Among the top gainers, SBI, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, Power Grid Corp and Trent surged 2-3 percent.