PNB stock slumps 12% to below Rs 100 mark

Bank stocks came under heavy shelling on Tuesday after Punjab National Bank (PNB) raised the fraud amount to over $2.4 million.

Bank stocks fell by up to 7% with PNB dropping 12.11% to end below the Rs 100 mark at Rs 98.35 on BSE.

The plunge pushed the benchmark indices into the red. After rallying for two days, the Sensex fell99.36 points, or 0.29%, to close at 34346.39 while Nifty dropped 28.30 points, or 0.27%, to close at 10554.30. Both the indices had rallied for two days.

During the day, the PNB stock tumbled 14.11% to Rs 96.10, its 52-week low.

On NSE, the stock plunged 12.18% to close at Rs 98.35.

In terms of equity volume, 149.07 lakh PNB shares were traded on BSE and over 20 crore shares changed hands on NSE.

The stock has been falling for four straight sessions, down 16%. In these four days, Rs 4,547.35 crore in the bank's market value has been eroded.

In a late night filing to the stock exchanges, the state-owned lender said that "the quantum of reported unauthorised transactions can increase by $204.25 million."

The bank had earlier put the defrauded amount at Rs 11,394.02 crore (USD 1.77 billion). Adding another Rs 1,323 crore would take this to Rs 12,717 crore.

Bank of India shares slumped 7.18% , IDBI 6.78%, Indian Bank 3.66%, UCO Bank 2.42% on BSE.

Bank of Maharashtra fell 1.78%, Bank of Baroda 1.63% and Allahabad Bank 0.77%.

The benchmark indices drop was also because the market mavens being anxious of the government's announcement of December quarter GDP as well as Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data on Wednesday.

The realty and other financial counters also led the plunge. Though the 30-share Sensex opened positive, it tanked almost 100 points at the end of the day.

Sensex closed 99.36 points or 0.29% down at 34346.39 while Nifty dropped 28.30 points, or 0.27%, to close at 10554.30.

The mid-cap and small-cap stocks also ended in red zones at 0.50% and 0.35% down, respectively.

Among the sectors, PSU Bank (-3.45%) tanked the most after PNB raised the fraud figure.

Others segment losers were BSE Realty (-2.03%) BSE Bankex (-1.43%), BSE Finance (-1.15%), BSE Metal (-0.79%) and BSE Basic Material (-0.59%).

The biggest losers on the BSE were Axis Bank (2.68%), SBI (2.53%), ICICI Bank (2.25%), Sun Pharma (-2.02%) and ONGC (-1.23%). Bharti Airtel (2.07%), Dr Reddy's (1.82%) and NTPC (1.53%) were the gainers.

Meanwhile, the foreign portfolio investors (FPI) sold shares worth Rs 906.86 crore and domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 1,046.67 crore on Tuesday.

FRESH TRIGGERS

• PNB raises the fraud amount to over $2  billion
   
• PNB fraud case led the banking stocks to trade lower
   
• Investors are cautious ahead of December quarter GDP data and IIP data