Sensex falls 876 points as Axis Bank and other private lenders drop after results

India's benchmark share indices fell more than 1% on Monday, October 19, with private-sector banks leading the decline after a run of quarterly results, according to a PTI report published by The Tribune. The 30-share BSE Sensex closed 876.37 points, or 1.17%, lower at 73,852.90, after falling as much as 1,020.73 points during the session. The NSE Nifty 50 ended 257.20 points, or 1.11%, lower at 22,888.95. Domestic markets are closed on Tuesday, October 20, for Dussehra, The Indian Awaaz reported.

Private banks drag, public sector banks rise

PTI said HDFC Bank and Axis Bank led the losses. Among the Sensex's main laggards were Axis Bank, UltraTech Cement, Infosys, Bajaj Finance, Trent, NTPC and HDFC Bank. Adani Ports, State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro, InterGlobe Aviation and Maruti Suzuki gained.

The Indian Awaaz put Axis Bank's fall at 4.19%, HDFC Bank's at 2.31% and ICICI Bank's at 1.15%, all after results that showed higher profits. Public sector lenders moved the other way: the Nifty PSU Bank index rose more than 2%, with Union Bank of India up 5.25% and Punjab National Bank up 4.82% after their own results, the outlet said. Midcap and smallcap indices fell 1.04% and 1.29%, and the India VIX volatility index rose 4.48% to 14.69.

Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Investments, told PTI that Indian equities came under "renewed selling pressure, reversing the recent recovery". He linked the fall to weak global cues and to selling in private banks and IT stocks, where quarterly earnings and margins were a concern.

Axis Bank's quarter

Axis Bank reported its July-September results on Saturday, October 17. Standalone net profit rose 38% from a year earlier to ₹7,003 crore, below the average analyst estimate of ₹7,124 crore compiled by LSEG, according to Kotak Neo and IIFL. PTI cited the consolidated figure, a 39.4% rise to ₹7,704.67 crore.

Net interest income rose 12% to ₹15,371 crore, and the net interest margin was 3.36%, Kotak Neo reported. Gross non-performing assets fell to 1.16% of loans and net NPAs to 0.35%.

IIFL reported that the shares fell as much as 5% on Monday to ₹1,225 on the NSE, their steepest intraday drop since December 2025. It said profit was down 1.56% from the previous quarter, and attributed the miss to:

• lower treasury income, which it linked to higher bond yields and rupee volatility;
• a 10-basis-point fall in the reported margin from the previous quarter, which Citi partly attributed to distortions from FCNR(B) deposits;
• muted fee income and higher operating costs, including one-off provisions related to the labour codes;
• a loan-to-deposit ratio that rose to 95%.

Brokerages were divided in tone, IIFL said. Goldman Sachs called the earnings broadly in line, Bernstein described a mixed quarter with weaker underlying trends, and Citi pointed to resilient core operations but higher costs.

Oil, rupee and global markets

Brent crude fell about 1.1% to around $108.7 a barrel, PTI said. The Indian Awaaz put the rupee at about 94.91 to the dollar and said the 10-year government bond yield rose to 7.403% from 7.382%. In Asia, South Korea's Kospi and China's Shanghai Composite ended higher and Japan's Nikkei fell, according to PTI, while US indices had closed lower on Friday, with the Nasdaq down 2.14%. Foreign institutional investors bought ₹1,165.92 crore of Indian shares on Friday after days of heavy selling, PTI reported.

The Sensex had risen 413.66 points on Friday to 74,729.27. PTI described Monday's fall as following a two-day rally, while The Indian Awaaz counted four sessions of gains in which the Sensex rose 2.68%.