Indian equities settle steady; Nifty PSU bank falls

New Delhi : The Indian equity indices — S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 — settled largely steady on Thursday.

The Sensex and Nifty settled at 57,794 points and 17,203 points, respectively, down just 0.02 per cent and 0.05 per cent from their previous close.

During the session, Nifty PSU bank indices fell as RBI expects NPAs to rise further in 2022.

Among the stocks, Bajaj Auto, Reliance Industries, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki were some of the top losers, falling 1.9 per cent, 1.6 per cent, 1.6 per cent, 1.4 per cent, 1.1 per cent, respectively.

During the session, NTPC, IndusInd Bank, HCL Technologies, Titan, and Cipla were the top gainers.

“Domestic bourses witnessed a choppy session lifted by gains in IT and healthcare stocks on the day of the monthly F&O expiry,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

“Banking stocks, especially PSUs, were under pressure as RBI’s financial stability report suggested a surge in bad loans with NPA’s rising from 6.9 per cent in September 2021 to 8.1 per cent in September 2022 under the base case scenario.”