Sensex closes 199 points lower but Yes Bank jumps over 33%

Equity markets traded with a negative bias throughout the trading session on Thursday and closed in the red as profit booking weighed in.

The BSE S&P Sensex closed 199 points or 0.5 per cent lower at 38,107 while the Nifty 50 slid by 47 points to 11,313.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), most sectoral indices were in the red except for auto, media, PSU bank, and realty.

The nifty metal was down by 3 per cent, financial service by 1.1 per cent and private bank by 1.02 per cent.

But among stocks, Yes Bank rose by 33.59 per cent to Rs 42.75 per share after Managing Director and CEO Ravneet Gill had a conference call with investors and analysts to assure them about the bank's strong fundamentals and operating metrics.

He said that Senior Group President and Chief Financial Officer Rajat Monga has decided to quit.

The other prominent gains were Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Zee Entertainment, Tata Motors, and Indian Oil Corporation.

However, metal stocks suffered badly with Vedanta down by 4.6 per cent, Hindalco by 4 per cent and Tata Steel by 3.4 per cent.

Private banks also remained on slippery ground with the IndusInd Bank sliding by 3 per cent, Kotak Mahindra Bank by 2.1 per cent, HDFC Bank by 2 per cent and Axis Bank by 1.7 per cent.

The other prominent losers were Coal India, Grasim and UltraTech Cements.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks skidded to a one-month low after President Donald Trump's administration announced a day earlier that the United States will impose tariffs on 7.5 billion dollars of goods from the European Union.

Japanese Nikkei traded down by over 2 per cent, South Korean Kospi by 1.9 per cent and Shanghai composite index by 0.9 per cent.

Global slowdown coupled with the chaos in Hong Kong pulled down other Asian indices as well.