Indian shares declined on Wednesday, as a drop in top private lender HDFC Bank after its quarterly results dragged high-weightage financials, while Asian peers eased after China’s quarterly growth fell short of expectations.
The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 shed 1.11% to 21,789.15 points, while the S&P BSE Sensex lost 1.16% to 72,281.77, as of 10:04 a.m. IST.
The highest weighted stock on the benchmark indexes HDFC Bank lost as much as 7.10%, its highest single-session percentage fall since May 4, 2020, after reporting stagnant margins for second consecutive quarter.
“Operating profit growth drivers appear to be less sustainable and the bank reported higher provisions,” analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities said in a note.
The underlying deposit growth environment has deteriorated while the drivers for net interest margin expansion appear to be slower than expected, they added.
The slide in HDFC Bank’s shares also weighed on the bank index and the financial services index, with both down about 2.5%.
Eleven of the 13 major sectors logged losses.
“The Nifty has no room for comfort at 22,100 levels. After the recent IT-driven rally, we think the domestic equities will see sort of weakness in the next two weeks,” Sanjiv Bhasin, director at IIFL Securities, said.
“Everything good, including earnings and macroeconomic data, has been priced in, so the benchmarks will see incremental moves from here onwards.”
IT stocks gained 0.5%, boosted by a 3% jump in L&T Technology Services after the software services company retained its revenue growth forecast for fiscal 2024.
Non-life insurer ICICI Lombard General Insurance gained 3.7% after posting a 22% growth in profit after tax in the December quarter.
Asian markets fell, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index losing 1.7% after China’s economic growth in December quarter missed expectations.
