Sensex Ends The Day Lower, Banking Stocks Fall

The Sensex ended the day lower, despite staying in the positive for most part of the day, as selling pressure in banking stocks in the last 1-hour of trade, dragged the Sensex ended in the negative.

Global cues were rather mixed, with select Asian markets ending the day lower, while most of Europe was trading with modest gains. Dow Futures pointed to slightly higher openings for the US markets.

The Sensex ended the day lower by 133 points, while the Nifty closed lower by 11 points. Banking stocks were the clear losers in trade with four of the top 5 Nifty losers coming from the banking space. Among the losers were Kotak Mahindra, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India and IndusInd Bank. HDFC Bank fell largely after reports that after Rosen and Schall, a third US-based law firm, Pomerantz LLP, has announced a class action lawsuit against HDFC Bank. The stock ended the day lower by 2.43 per cent. Among the stocks that gained ground in trade today were Dr Reddy's, Cipla, Mahindra and Mahindra, Hindalco and Bharti Airtel. Among the top gainers from the small cap pack was Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers, whose shares jumped 3.5 per cent in trade.

Meanwhile, European markets were trading flat to negative in early trade there.