Sensex drops most in one month, banks take a beating

Market today saw its biggest

single-day decline in a month as the benchmark Sensex cracked

180 points to end below 31,000 after financial and PSU stocks

reeled amid lacklustre global cues and caution ahead of GST.

Banking stocks in particular bore the brunt of the RBI's

mandate which required them to go for higher provisioning for

those stressed loans marked for insolvency courts.

Investors, who are keenly following US Fed policymakers'

statements to get a clue on which way the borrowing rates are

headed, turned cautious ahead of June expiry of derivatives

contracts on Thursday and rollout of GST on July 1.

The Sensex settled down by 179.96 points, or 0.58 per

cent, at 30,958.25, its lowest closing since May 25 when it

settled at 30,750.03.

It had fallen by 152.53 points on Friday. The stock

exchange was shut yesterday on account of Id-Ul-Fitr.

The NSE Nifty ended lower by 63.55 points, or 0.66 per

cent, at 9,511.40. Intra-day, it cracked below the 9,500-mark

to touch a low of 9,473.45 and hit a high of 9,615.40.

Syndicate Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and

Union Bank all fell by up to 4.97 per cent.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)