Share markets in India are presently trading on a negative note, tracking weak global cues.
US stock indexes fell on Thursday as fears of another lockdown to contain a surge in coronavirus cases overshadowed data pointing to a declining trend in weekly jobless claims.
The Labor Department's most timely data on the economy showed 1.31 million Americans filed for state unemployment benefits in the latest week, down from 1.43 million in the previous week.
Sectoral indices are trading on a negative note with stocks in the finance sector and metal sector witnessing most of the selling pressure.
The BSE Sensex is trading down by 213 points (down 0.6%), at 36,500 levels.
Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading down by 64 points (down 0.6%).
The BSE Mid Cap index is trading down by 0.4%. The BSE Small Cap index is trading down by 0.3%.
The rupee is trading at 75.27 against the US$.
Speaking of the current stock market scenario, investors and traders who are new to stock markets have had a superb experience over the past three months as almost any and every stock has given them phenomenal returns.
The problem is that this experience may not be lasting unless investors now take a careful look at their portfolio and literally sanitize them to get rid of the unwanted elements.
In news from the banking sector, Punjab National Bank (PNB) is among the top buzzing stocks today.
Shares of PNB tumbled over 6% in early trade today, a day after the lender declared its Rs 36 billion exposure to Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) as a fraudulent account.
In an exchange filing, the country's third-largest public sector bank said the fraud in the non-performing asset account of DHFL "at Large Corporate Branch" in Mumbai was reported to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The bank added that it has already made provisions amounting to Rs 12.5 billion, as per prescribed prudential norms.
This is the fourth scandal Punjab National Bank has reported in three years. PNB was hit by an Rs 11--billion fraud involving billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi in 2018.
Non-banking financial company DHFL is in bankruptcy proceedings.
In November last year, the RBI had sent the troubled mortgage lender DHFL for bankruptcy proceedings, making it the first financial services player to go to the NCLT for a possible debt resolution.
DHFL came in the eye of the storm after a report suggested that the company, through layers of shell companies, allegedly siphoned off Rs 310 billion out of total bank loans of Rs 970 billion.
After alleged violations in the company came to light last year, various agencies, including SFIO, had initiated a probe.
Other banks including State Bank of India (SBI) and Union Bank have also reported Dewan Housing Finance's accounts as fraudulent.
We will keep you updated on the latest developments from this space. Stay tuned.
Moving on to news from the commodity space, domestic gold prices are trading marginally higher, tracking a muted trend in international spot prices.
International prices were set for a fifth straight weekly gain as the coronavirus pandemic showed no signs of abating, keeping the safe-haven metal above the key US$ 1,800 level.
On the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX), August gold contracts are trading higher by 0.1% at Rs 48,880 per 10 grams.
July futures for Silver are trading 0.3% higher at Rs 51,218 per kg.
In the previous session, domestic gold prices had risen 0.7%, while silver had surged 2.2%. Gold prices surged to a record high of Rs 49,348 per 10 gram, tracking firm global rates.
So far this year, gold prices have gained more than 25% after they rallied by a quarter in the whole of 2019.
The yellow metal is also in focus lately after US Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said that output and employment remain far below their pre-pandemic levels and cautioned that the outlook for the economy is "extraordinarily uncertain."
So how lucrative has gold been as a long-term investment in India?
The chart below shows the annual returns on gold over the last 15 years...
Gold Has Been a Shining Long-Term Investment
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