Share markets in India continued to trade in the red during closing hours and ended their trading session marginally lower. Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the consumer durable sector and FMCG sector witnessing most of the selling pressure.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 106 points (down 0.3%) and the NSE Nifty closed down by 14 points (down 0.1%). The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day down 0.1%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended the day up 0.1%.

The rupee was trading at 70.66 against the US$.

Asian stock markets finished on a mixed note. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was up by 0.29% and the Shanghai Composite was up by 0.4%. The Nikkei 225 was down 2.4%.

In the news from the macroeconomic space, global rating agency Moody's Investors Services projected India's real GDP to grow 7.2% in the year ending March 2019 and 7.4% in the following year. As per the agency, the growth will be driven by investment growth and strong consumption.

It said that asset quality will be stable (but weak) as cleanup of legacy problem loans nears completion and corporate health improves. Banks have recognized the bulk of legacy problem loans and will start making recoveries from large resolved nonperforming loans.

It further added that banks' second-quarter performance showed that fresh bad loan and will start making recoveries from large resolved nonperforming loans.

The rating firm, however, predicted improvement in banks' profitability but high credit costs would keep it muted. It said funding and liquidity profiles of public sector banks will remain resilient, notwithstanding their solvency challenges.

From the pharma space, Sun Pharma share price was in focus today as the company eased concerns and saying it will work towards re-establishing credibility and corporate governance which could include the review of some past decisions.

This includes decisions such as a US$ 250 million loan to employees and others and a possible buyout of a domestic company classified as a related party.

Note that the company's stock price plunged around 10% yesterday, hitting a six-month low after various allegations of mis governance and insider trading.

Last Tuesday, a note by Macquarie, an Australian brokerage firm went viral which raised concerns among the investing community.

The note raised questions about inadequate disclosures regarding the role of promoter Dilip Shanghvi's brother-in-law Sudhir Valia, Sun Pharma's past links with banned traders Ketan Parekh and Dharmesh Doshi, related party transactions involving promoter Shanghvi and guarantees given to real estate firm Suraksha Realty.

The note also questioned the selection of little-known London-based firm Jermyn Capital to manage the drug major's $275 million foreign convertible bond issue in 2004-07.

The markets regulator reportedly is planning to reopen the investigation into the insider trading case against the company and its promoters which was settled through consent mechanism.

Responding to the above news, Sun pharma denied all the allegations and said the information which was already available in the public domain had been portrayed in a way to indicate that something inappropriate had been done by the company.

In the news from the banking space, Yes Bank share price continued its rally and witnessed buying interest today.

Gains were mostly seen on the back of news of TS Vijayan's inclusion to the bank's board of directors. The development has turned up well for the lender which was hit by a series of resignations.

The stock of the company plunged to its lowest levels in over two years last week after credit rating agencies ICRAand CARE ratings downgraded the bank's debt instruments.

ICRA downgraded domestic long-term ratings of the bank's senior debt instruments to 'ICRA AA' from 'ICRA AA+' and its subordinate debt instruments to 'ICRA AA-' from 'ICRA AA'.

Meanwhile, CARE Ratings cut domestic ratings of Yes Bank's senior debt instruments to 'CARE AA+' from 'CARE AAA' and subordinate debt instruments to 'CARE AA' from 'CARE AA+'.

Earlier last week, Moody's also downgraded the bank's foreign currency issuer rating and changed the outlook on the bank to 'negative' from 'stable'.

To know more about the company, you can access to Yes bank Q2FY19 result analysis and Yes bank Stock Analysis on our website.

Speaking of corporate banks, Sarvajeet offers an interesting observation on a corporate bank stock.

Corporate Banks Underperforming Retail-focused Banks

Retail-focused banks such as HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra bank performed significantly better compared to corporate banks. One of the important reasons for this outperformance is stable asset quality. They could maintain gross NPAs below 1% in the previous five years.

Whereas corporate focused banks such as ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and SBI are facing serious asset quality issues. Not to mention, some of these banks had management issues as well. No wonder these banks not only underperformed retail-focused banks, but also the BSE Bank index as well.

But as I mentioned earlier, the worst is behind them.