Market Watch: Bank stocks fall; Axis Bank, PNB top losers

The BSE Bankex index lost about 1% in Wednesday's initial trade to hit 27314 with shares of Punjab National Bank (down 1.78%), followed by Axis Bank (down 1.36%), ICICI Bank (down 0.91%), Federal Bank (down 0.89%), Bank of Baroda (down 0.76%), HDFC Bank (down 0.69%) and SBI down 0.65%) as top losers.

Besides bank, healthcare, realty, FMCG and IT indices also witnessed significant fall. Sun Pharma, Lupin, Bajaj Auto , Axis Bank, Adani Ports and Infosys were the top losers in Sensex pack, each losing over 1%.

BSE Realty index was trading in negative terrain with almost all the stocks trading in the negative. BSE Realty was trading lower by 1.13 percent at 2,171 levels on BSE at post morning hours. Indiabulls Real Estate was the major loser in the index, which is trading lower by 2.13 percent at Rs 236 share apiece. The stock was contributing majorly to the index losses. DLF was also gaining more than 7 points to the index losses, while Oberoi Realty and Phoenix are contributing above 3 points to the index losses.

The Indian rupee today weakened for the 4th session to hit a 3-week low against the USD after FIIs liquidated their investments in the domestic markets. The rupee opened at 64.18 per dollar and touched a low of 64.22 and was trading at 64.21 per dollar, down 0.12 percent from its last close of 64.13.