Many stocks fell to touch their 52-week lows on NSE in Tuesday's session. Among the stocks that touched their 52-week lows were Canara Bank. This happened after market hours on Friday, 30 August 2019, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank will be merged.
The mega-merger plan of public sector banks (PSBs) is being seen as the biggest consolidated exercise in the banking space, aimed at making them lenders of global size and scale. According to Business Standard, Shares of Canara Bank slumped 6.03% to Rs 207.25 at 10:45 IST on the BSE. The stock hit a high of Rs 213.35 so far during the day. The scrip has hit a low of Rs 205 in intraday, which is also a 52-week low for the stock. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 302 on 01 Apr 2019. On a consolidated basis, Canara Bank's net profit rose 12.43% to Rs 383.04 crore on an 8.11% increase in the total income to Rs 15,231.72 crore in Q1 June 2019 over Q1 June 2018.
Shares of Syndicate Bank added 1.08% to Rs 32.70 at 10:45 IST on the BSE. The stock hit a high of Rs 33.5 and a low of Rs 32.3 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 46.6 on 02 Apr 2019. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 29.1 on 23 Aug 2019.
On the BSE, 2.03 lakh shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 23 lakh shares in the past one quarter. Syndicate Bank has underperformed the market in past one year, falling 22.83% as against Sensex's 4.27% fall. Punjab National Bank which will be merged with the Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India, fell over 7 per cent, the most among the state-run banks constituting the PSU Bank Nifty index. Oriental Bank of Commerce was trading nearly 5 per cent lower, reported Business Standard.
Canara Bank was down over 6 per cent but Syndicate Bank was trading nearly 1 per cent higher. Both the banks are set to be merged into one. Union Bank of India fell nearly 6 per cent. It will amalgamate with Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank. Indian Bank slipped nearly 6 per cent, and Allahabad Bank fell, which it is set to merge with, declined over 2 per cent. Earlier the government had also announced upfront capital infusion of Rs 70,000 crore into the public sectors banks.
