Indian shares ended marginally lower on Wednesday as oil stocks such as Indian Oil Corp Ltd and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd fell after global crude prices firmed on strong Chinese factory data. The broader NSE index closed 0.15 percent lower at 10,410.90, while the benchmark BSE index inched 0.06 percent lower at 33,835.74. Indian Oil dropped 3.1 percent while ONGC fell 1.6 percent.
Most financial stocks erased losses from earlier in the session, with the Nifty PSU bank index reversing course to close 1.8 percent higher. Punjab National Bank ended up 1.4 percent. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) barred all lenders from issuing letters of undertaking (LoU) - a form of credit guarantee at the heart of a major fraud that shook the financial sector last month. The instruments are all forms of trade finance often used by importers to fund their overseas purchases.
Punjab National Bank told police on Tuesday that it had uncovered additional exposure of about 9.42 billion rupees ($144.83 mln) to Gitanjali group of companies, taking its overall exposure in connection with the fraud to well over the $2-billion mark. Bucking the broader trend, Fortis Healthcare Ltd rose as much as 5.5 percent.
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