Sensex Opens Lower; Energy & PSU Stocks Lose

Asian stocks are lower today as Chinese and Hong Kong shares fall. The Shanghai Composite is off 1.67% while the Hang Seng is down 0.87%. The Nikkei 225 is trading down by 1.18%. US stocks closed lower on Wednesday in a rocky session after the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January meeting pushed yields on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note to a four-year high.

Back home, India share markets opened the day on a negative note. The BSE Sensex is trading lower by 94 points while the NSE Nifty is trading lower by 39 points. The BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index opened the day up by 0.4% & 0.3% respectively.

Sectoral indices have opened the day on a mixed note with information technology stocks and consumer durables stocks witnessing maximum buying interest. While, oil & gas stocks and PSU stocks have opened the day in red. The rupee is trading at 64.82 to the US$.

In the news from the banking sector. As per an article in a leading financial daily, Bank of India had sanctioned some loan to Rotomac group companies as a consortium lender and that had turned into a non-performing asset (NPA) or bad loan in the 2015-16 fiscal for which it has already made 100% provisioning.

However, the bank did not disclose the amount of its exposure to the Rotomac group, in response to a clarification sought by exchanges on news article ‘Rotomac owner flees country after taking Rs 8 billion loan’.

Recently, three state own lenders–Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank — had clarified about their exposure to the firm.

Bank of Baroda had an exposure of Rs 4.6 billion to Rotomac Global, which is under investigation by CBI and the Enforcement Directorate in connection with an alleged bank loan fraud.

Reportedly, BoB has also initiated action against Rotomac Global under SARFAESI Act.