Indian stock markets gained for the second consecutive day on Monday, on the back of an uptrend in Asian markets and rise in crude oil prices. The S&P BSE Sensex ended with a gain of 50 points, or 0.21%, to close at 24,485, while the NSE Nifty closed at 7,436.15, up 13.70 points, or 0.18%.
While Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, ONGC, Coal India and ICICI Bank helped the Sensex close in green, GAIL, Hero Motocorp and Larsen & Toubro stocks put pressure on the index and closed as top losers .
On the NSE, Cairn India was the biggest Nifty gainer, rising 5.14% to close at Rs 118.65, followed by Tata Steel and Sun Pharma.
The rally in shares of oil and exploration companies was due to a rebound in crude oil prices.
During the day, private sector lender HDFC Bank reported its third quarter results. The bank's net profit was Rs 3,356.84 crore, up almost 20% from Rs 2,794.51 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal, while net interest income was up 24% at Rs 7,069 crore. The bank's net interest margin was 4.3%, marginally down from 4.4% during the year-ago period.
However, the biggest surprise was the increase in the bank's non-performing assets, or NPAs, and the provisioning for bad debt.
In absolute terms, gross NPA was up by 22.7% on yearly basis and represented an increase of 11.2% on a sequential basis, to Rs 4,255.20 crore, according to a moneycontrol.com report. Net NPAs rose 39.5% YoY and 21.5% on a sequential basis to Rs 1,260.60 crore.
The bank's provisioning for bad debt increased by 16.7% YoY to Rs 653.9 crore.
The share price of HDFC Bank closed at Rs 1,039.95, up 0.94% from its previous close.
The markets will remain closed on Tuesday on account of Republic Day.
The rupee closed at 67.84 against the US dollar on Tuesday, down 21 paise from its Monday close.
FIIs were net sellers of equities at Rs 91.15 crore on the stock exchanges on Monday, based on provisional data released by NSE. In January, FIIs have been net sellers on all days, except 1 January.
