Bank Nifty maintained upside amid bullish markets tone on Thursday, however, the upside move was in a slower place as state-owned banks limit the gains. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced key measures to boost the economy amid the current Covid situation in the country. RBI gave a boost to lending, liquidity facility, stressed assets provisions among others in the sector.
At around 2.03 pm, Nifty Bank was trading at 32,902.05 up by 118.35 points or 0.36%. The index has touched an intraday high and low of 32,956.35 and 32,564 respectively.
AU Small Finance Bank was the top gainer on Nifty Bank, surging by 2.3%. The performance comes after RBI allowed small finance banks (SFBs) for fresh lending to small microfinance institutions (MFIs).
Further, Nifty Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Bank were on the gainers’ list, soaring by 0.9% each. IDFC First Bank and HDFC Bank jumped by 0.5% each.
On the contrary, Bandhan Bank was the top underperformer tumbling by nearly 4% followed by PNB and Federal Bank slipping 2.8% and 1.3% respectively.
IndusInd Bank dived by 0.4%, while RBL Bank, SBI and Axis Bank were broadly on a subdued level.
However, on NSE, the Nifty PSU Bank index was the top bear tumbling by 1.2%. PNB, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank and Canara Bank dragged plunging between 1-3%. Stocks like Bank of Maharashtra, J&K Bank and Punjab & Sind Bank were top bulls soaring between 1-2.5%.
RBI governor Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday announced an on-tap liquidity window of Rs50,000cr to boost the provision of immediate liquidity for ramping up COVID related healthcare infrastructure and services in the country. The window has a tenor of 3 years at the repo rate of 4% and is being opened till March 31, 2022.
Also, Das announced that to provide further support to small business units, micro and small industries, and other unorganised sector entities adversely affected during the current wave of the pandemic, it has been decided to conduct special three-year long-term repo operations (SLTRO) of Rs10,000cr. Meanwhile, banks are allowed to utilise 100% of floating provisions/counter-cyclical provisioning for making specific provisions for nonperforming assets.
