Bank stocks witness selling pressure, down up to 5%

New Delhi: Bank stocks tumbled up to 5 percent today amid reports of the RBI's mandate which required them to go for higher provisioning for those stressed loans marked for insolvency courts.

Shares of Syndicate Bank plunged 4.97 percent, Punjab National Bank 4.69 per cent, Andhra Bank 4.03 percent, Allahabad Bank 3.88 percent, Bank of Baroda (3.64 percent), SBI (3.27 percent), Union Bank of India (2.83 percent), Bank of Maharashtra (2.63 percent) and AXIS Bank (2.34 percent) on BSE.

Among others, Federal Bank slipped 2.13 per cent, Yes Bank (1.47 percent), ICICI Bank (1.20 percent), Kotak Mahindra Bank (1.13 percent), HDFC Bank (0.63 percent) and Indusind Bank (0.52 percent).

The BSE bank index fell by 1.45 percent to close at 26,234.14.

"RBIs guideline to maintain higher provision against the loans under the insolvency process has impacted the market direction and plunged the market to test the support level of 9,500. RBIs action will impact earnings potential for banks and finally impact investor's expectation for FY'18 earnings growth," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services Ltd.

The benchmark Sensex on Tuesday plunged 179.96 points to end at 30,958.25.