Bank stocks fell 0.08 percent ahead of RBI monetary policy review


Mumbai: Prior to the Reserve Bank's (RBI) quarterly review of the monetary policy, the bank index of the Bombay Stock Exchange went down by 0.08 percent on Tuesday. The BSE-bankex fell 0.08 percent, or 9.08 points, to 11,390.51 in early trade. However, the country's largest lender, State Bank of India, jumped 0.57 percent to touch an intra-day high of Rs 2,422.80. Later, the scrip was trading at Rs 2,419.60, up 0.45 percent, at 0927 hrs. The Reserve Bank is expected to hike the short-term lending and borrowing rates (repo and reverse repo) by at least 0.25 percent each to tame inflation. ICICI Bank fell by 1.62 percent to touch an intra-day low of 901. The stock was being quoted at 912.90, down 0.32 percent. Other banking stocks which were in the red include Punjab National Bank (down 0.21 percent), Canara Bank (down 0.29 percent), Bank of Baroda (down 0.55 percent), Bank of Maharashtra (down 0.24 percent), Bank of India (down 0.14 percent), Central Bank (down 0.98 percent) and UCO Bank (down 0.93 percent). Meanwhile, some banking stocks were trading higher, like HDFC Bank (up 0.48 percent), IDBI Bank (up 0.13 percent), Indian Bank (up 1.01 percent). Earlier this month, the RBI had raised the repo and reverse repo rates by 25 basis points to tame inflation.
Source: PTI