Jitters on GST, bank stocks weigh on St; Sensex tanks 180 pts

Dalal Street on Tuesday saw its biggest single-day decline in a month as jittery investors watched their step ahead of the goods and services tax (GST) set to be rolled out on July 1 and June expiry of derivatives contracts on Thursday.

The BSE Sensex fell 179.96 points, or 0.58%, to close at 30958. The benchmark index made its lowest closing since May 25 when it settled at 30750.03. It had fallen by 152.53 points on Friday. The NSE Nifty, on the other hand, ended 63.55 points lower, or 0.66%, ending at 9511.40.

The India VIX jumped 8.22% with its current value standing at 12.5075.

Sentiments took a beating as banking and PSU stocks reeled in the session with bank stocks bearing the brunt of the mandate by Reserve Bank of India (RBI's) mandate which required them to go for higher provisioning for those stressed loans marked for insolvency courts. The central bank's action will impact earnings potential for banks and would determine investors' expectation for FY18 earnings growth, say experts. Further, lacklustre global cues also weighed on sentiment as investors following US Fed policymakers' statements to get a clue on the trajectory of borrowing rates, were cautious.

Shares of the largest state-run sector lender SBI plunged 3.27% to Rs 279.40, followed by Axis Bank 2.34% to Rs 492.80. ICICI Bank fell 1.20% Kotak Bank lost 1.13% and HDFC Bank down 0.63%

Syndicate Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Federal Bank, Vijaya Bank, Canara Bank, Andhra Bank, Allahabad Bank, Corporation Bank and Union Bank too fell by up to 4.97%.

Other laggards were Asian Paint, Infosys, L&T, Bajaj Auto, Cipla, TCS, M&M, Maruti Suzuki, Coal India, NTPC, Wipro, Hind Unilever and PowerGrid. Bucking the trend, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Steel, Adani Ports, Lupin and ITC Ltd, ended higher and cushioned the fall.

Indian markets have been witnessing consolidation with wary participants keepingt their investments on hold.

Profit-booking by retail investors dragged down small-cap and mid-cap indices 1.57% and 0.79% respectively. Among the sectoral indices, bankex fell the most by losing 1.45% followed by realty (1.40%), PSU (1.32%), capital goods (1.20%), IT (1.12%), teck (0.91%), power (0.66%), auto (0.63%) and healthcare (0.28%).

Globally, European markets were lower after the president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi 's word on another recession. Markets in France, Germany and the UK fell in early deals. Asian shares ended mostly mixed with Hong Kong's Hang Seng falling 0.12%, while Japan's Nikkei ended higher 0.36% and China's Shanghai Composite gained a0.18%.

BEAR HIT

• Sentiments took a beating as banking and PSU stocks reeled in the session
   
• State Bank of India at 3.27% led the fall, followed by Axis Bank (2.34%)