Sensex: On Monday, Indian shares fell, weighed down by losses in banking and financial stocks as investors assessed the impact of the central bank’s stricter rules for personal loans on lenders.
As of 10:20 a.m. IST, the NSE Nifty 50 index and the S&P BSE Sensex were both flat at 19,731 and 65,746, respectively.
The banking and financial indexes were both down 0.2%, while the private bank index was down 0.4%.
Banks’ selling will be exhausted because unsecured lending for retail (clients) is very low and banks have very strong risk management, said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president for research at SMC Global Securities.
Following repeated warnings about rapid growth in some personal loans, the Reserve Bank of India instructed the country’s banks to set aside more capital last week.
On Monday, small and mid-cap stocks outperformed the benchmarks, rising 0.4% each. They are up more than 9% and 7% this month, respectively, compared to 3% gains in the Nifty and Sensex.
High net-worth investors, retail investors, and domestic mutual funds are consistently buying small and mid-cap stocks, reflecting confidence in domestic markets, according to Jain.
Sensex
The index of information technology stocks rose 0.5%, extending their winning streak. The index gained 5% last week, its best week in 16 months, boosted by expectations that the US Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates.
In terms of individual stocks, Talbros Automotive Components saw a 19.2% increase to a record high on Monday following the winning of orders totaling 5.80 billion rupees.
In response to its intention to build a luxury housing project in the National Capital Region, shares of Oberoi Realty increased 4.3% to a record high.
For more clues about the trajectory of interest rates, investors are waiting for the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s most recent meeting, which are expected this week.
