Benchmark indices lose early gains as Yes Bank shares nosedive

Mumbai: Market benchmarks Sensex and Nifty on Tuesday closed with marginal losses after a volatile session as a massive 30 per cent plunge in Yes Bank shares overwhelmed the gains in HDFC twins and IT stocks.

The BSE Sensex closed with 0.09 per cent or 35.78 points loss at 39,031.55, while the NSE Nifty ended 0.06 per cent or 6.50 points lower at 11,748.15.

After a three-day break, Indian bourses started off the session on Tuesday on a negative note and struggled through the day fighting volatility.

Indian financial markets were closed on Monday due to elections in Maharashtra.

The 30-share gauge opened lower at 39,056.92 and touched a low of 38,753.46 and a high of 39,105.88 -- swinging over 352 points during the session.

Similarly, the NSE benchmark Nifty started on a weak note at 11,748.75 and fell further to hit a low of 11,655.90 during the day.

Its high was 11,756.25. A fresh round of panic gripped banks and finance company stocks as Yes bank delivered a large March quarter loss and two of the Reliance ADAG finance companies' credit rating was downgraded, according to analysts.

Yes Bank shares crashed nearly 30 per cent after the lender posted a loss of Rs 1,506.64 crore for the March quarter, hit by higher provisioning for bad loans.

Shares of housing finance companies remained under heavy selling pressure with Indiabulls Housing Finance and PNB Housing finance diving as much as 6 per cent.

Besides Yes Bank, other major Sensex laggards were IndusInd Bank, HeroMoto Corp, Maruti Suzuki, PowerGrid and Mahindra and Mahindra -- plunging as much as 5.21 per cent.

On the other hand, HCL Tech, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, Infosys and HDFC emerged as the top gainers, which restricted the Sensex from suffering a heavy loss.

Of the 30 Sensex constituents, 15 ended in the red and as many stocks in the green.

Sectorally, telecom, realty, auto and banks were among the top losers, shedding as much as 2.22 per cent.

Broad market indices like the midcap and smallcap lost more, thereby underperforming the Sensex. Market breadth was negative on the BSE.

Stocks like Yes Bank, Hero Motocorp reacted to results, while realty shares suffered on fears of liquidity drying up for them and PSU Banks came under selling pressure on fears of fresh slippages occurring due to the issues faced by NBFCs and some other corporate groups, analysts said.