Indian shares ended lower on Tuesday, dragged by bank stocks as uncertainties around state-run banks hit risk appetite. Punjab National Bank uncovered more fraudulent transactions, taking its overall prospective loss to nearly $2 billion, while the finance ministry announced a 15-day deadline for PSU lenders to improve oversight. The benchmark BSE index closed down 0.29 percent at 34,346.39. The broader NSE index ended 0.27 percent lower at 10,554.3. Both indexes fell for the first time in three sessions.
The Nifty PSU Bank index closed 3.49 percent lower, with PNB ending 12.2 percent down. The Nifty PSU Bank index fell as much as 2.7 percent, dragged by a nearly 9 percent decline in PNB shares after it disclosed fraudulent transactions of over $200 million in addition to the $1.77 billion reported earlier.
Investor sentiment was also tepid ahead of domestic economic data including October-December quarter gross domestic product (GDP) and fiscal deficit. A Reuters poll forecast GDP expansion at 6.9 percent, the fastest in 2017. "There is caution ahead of the economic data, but it is expected to be positive," said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.
Shares of Ambuja Cement Ltd fell 4.8 percent while ACC Ltd was down 2.2 percent after the companies late on Monday said they had put on hold plans for a proposed merger. Among the gainers, oil explorers Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd and Reliance Industries Ltd rose 2.1 percent and 1.8 percent respectively on higher oil prices.
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