After opening the day in red share markets in India witnessed negative trading activity throughout the day and ended the day below the dotted line. Sectoral indices too ended the day in red, with stocks in the pharma sector and stocks in the metal sector leading the losses.
At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 206 points (down 0.6%) and the NSE Nifty closed down by 63 points (down 0.6%). The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day down 0.5%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended the day down by 0.9%.
Asian stock markets too finished in red. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was down by 2.5% and the Shanghai Composite was down by 1.4%. The Nikkei 225 was down by 1.3%. Meanwhile, European markets, too were trading on a negative note. The FTSE 100 was down by 0.1%, The DAX, was down by 0.9% while the CAC 40 was down by 0.9%.
The rupee was trading at Rs 65.19 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 64.78 at the time of writing.
In news from stocks in the banking sector. IDBI Bank share price was in focus today as the bank disclosed a Rs 7.7 billion fraud.
IDBI Bank Ltd said that fraudulent loans of Rs 7.7 billion (US$ 118.8 million) were issued from five of its branches in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Some of the loans, which were issued during fiscal years 2009-2013 for fish farming businesses, were obtained against fake lease documents of non-existent fish ponds and by inflating the value of collateral, the company said.
The company found major lapses in processing and disbursing the loans by two of its officials. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has registered cases for two of the five complaints, relating to branches at Basheerbagh and Guntur, the company said.
The bank said earlier on Tuesday it initiated a quality assurance audit, expected to be completed by April.
