IOB was followed by UCO Bank, which was up nearly 7% around 10 am. It hit its 52-week high of Rs 43.20.
Others, including Punjab & Sind Bank (5%), Bank of India (4.3%), Bank of Maharashtra (4.2%), Punjab National Bank (4.18%), Central Bank of India (2.55%), Union Bank of India (2.34%), Bank of Baroda (2.02%) and Canara Bank (1.73%) also scaled their 52-week highs today. Index heavyweight the State Bank of India (SBI) was up by over 1% and trading at Rs 605.75.
The 12-stock index was higher by 3% over Friday’s closing level of 5,176.80, carrying its previous week’s gains of 7%.
“Over the longer term, I do not recommend that people should keep on buying PSU banks at higher and higher valuations because, from this quarter or next quarter onwards, we will start seeing some uptick in NPAs and a squeeze in margins which was not there for the last two quarters. Some allocation is fine, but excessive allocation to PSU banks does not make any sense,” said independent market expert Sandip Sabharwal.
Public sector banks clocked gains even as private peers succumbed to selling pressure. Nifty Bank was trading at 46,100.60, down 0.28% while Nifty Private Bank was lower by 0.49% and trading at 23,797.50. The situation was identical for other financial stocks, with Nifty Financial Services down 0.33%.
Frontline indices S&P BSE Sensex and Nifty50 traded lower on Monday as global sentiments remain pessimistic. While Nifty was trading at 20,181.80 around this time, down by 10.55 points or 0.05%, the 30-stock Sensex was trading at 67,748.11, lower by 90.52 points or 0.13%.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)
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