New Delhi, Feb 14: The public sector unit banks tinkered at the stock market, with the shares of leading lenders registering a drop. The Punjab National Bank registered a sink of 4 per cent in the share value — which is being attributed to the news of fraudulent transactions in one of its Mumbai branches.

PNB on Wednesday said in its exchange filing that "some fraudulent and unauthorised transactions"were recorded for the "benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent connivance". The quantum of such illicit transactions is US $1.77 billion.

The State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest public-sector lender, also plunged by 2 per cent, due to the overall negative earnings recorded by PSU banks.

Among the top losers are Bank of India, which shed by nearly 4 per cent due to the negative earnings registered in the Q3 results.

The Nifty PSU Bank Index plummeted to 3,394.4 points, a drop of more than 2 per cent.

The highest depreciating rate of PNB stock was recorded as 5.7 per cent early on Tuesday, with the share-price dropping to Rs 152.45 on the National Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, the BoI shares had collapsed to as low as Rs 138.05, depreciating as high as 4.7 per cent.

Other PSU banks which crumbled at the market:

- Syndicate Bank's stock slided by 3 per cent.

- Allahabad Bank, IDBI Bank, Canara Bank, Andhra Bank and Union Bank of India tinkered by 2-3 per cent.

- Shares of the Oriental Bank of Commerce degraded by 2.7 per cent, whereas, the Bank of Baroda and the Indian Bank came down by 0.18 and 1.16 per cent respectively.

The PSUs have been shedding since the release of the Budget document on February 1.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 14, 2018 12:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).