20
NEW DELHI: Most PSU bank stocks including Canara Bank (down 1.30 per cent), Indian Bank (down 1.26 per cent) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (down 1.09 per cent) were trading with gains during morning trade after nearly 1 million bank employees of public sector banks across the country plan to go on a two-day nationwide strike starting Wednesday.
The bank unions have been pressing for various demands, including wage revision in the wake of the proposal for a 2 per cent hike in salary.
The Nifty PSU Bank index was trading 0.75 per cent down at 2,918 around 10:30 am.
The government expects state-run banks to be able to slash bad loans by as much as Rs 3 lakh crore this financial year, mostly through debt resolution under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
Shares of Union Bank of India (down 0.94 per cent), State Bank of India (down 0.74 per cent) and Allahabad Bank (down 0.60 per cent) declined up to 1 per cent.
Bank of India (down 0.44 per cent), Andhra Bank (down 0.41 per cent), Syndicate Bank (down 0.40 per cent), Bank of Baroda (down 0.36 per cent) and Punjab National Bank (down 0.35 per cent) were also suffering losses.
IDBI Bank (up 0.69 per cent) was the only component in the Nifty PSU Bank index that was up around that time.
Benchmark NSE Nifty50 index was down 51 points at 10,582, while the BSE Sensex was 135 points down at 34,814.
Among the 50 stocks in the Nifty index, 13 were trading in the green, while 37 were in the red.
Hindalco Industries, HPCL, ICICI Bank and BPCL were among top losers in the Nifty index.
