After opening their day on a positive note, Indian share markets gave up their earlier gains and ended their session marginally lower. Losses were largely seen in the realty sector and telecom sector, while consumer durables stocks ended the day higher.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 130 points (up 0.4%) and the NSE Nifty closed lower by 41 points (up 0.4%). The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day down by 0.8%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended the day down by 1.1%.

Asian stock markets finished on a negative note as of the most recent closing prices. The Hang Seng was down 1.09% and the Shanghai Composite stood lower by 0.52%. The rupee was trading at 65.12 to the US$ at the time of writing.

Jindal Drilling & Industries (JDIL) share price was witnessing buying interest today as the company reached a settlement for an arbitration award worth US$ 31.77 million for damages passed against company, for US$ 9.1 million with a complete waiver of all other costs.

In other news from the banking sector, the government said that Punjab National Bank (PNB) expects a Rs 145 billion loss on account of frauds in this financial year, including contingent liabilities, following the scam by Nirav Modi.In the news from the steel sector, as per a leading financial daily, the US has decided to slap anti-dumping duty on stainless steel flanges imported from India and China as it found in its preliminary probe that both the countries provided subsidies to the exporters.

The amount involved in the alleged fraud involving Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and their companies is now pegged at almost Rs 140 billion. The total loss reported by the bank due to frauds was Rs 3.4 billion in FY16, Rs 26 billion in FY17, and Rs 145 billion (including contingent liabilities) in FY18 till date.

Note that the recent fraud at Punjab National Bank in conjunction with the diamond merchant Nirav Modi has put the spotlight on the growing bad loan problems in Indian banks.

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