Markets open lower; Rupee weakness persist

Markets opened on a negative note this Tuesday on back of selling pressure witnessed in realty and banking stocks amid currency concerns after Rupee touched its fresh record low earlier in the opening session.

The local currency touched 58.30 in the opening deals versus Monday’s close of 58.15 against the US dollar raising fears that the overseas investors may soon pare their positions in Indian equity markets.

At 09:15AM, Sensex gained fell 59 points to open at 19,382 points and the Nifty down 29 points at 5,849 levels.

Asian stocks swung between gains and losses after the regional equity benchmark index rose the most in three weeks yesterday. Japanese stock futures fell after the Bank of Japan kept its policy unchanged.

The Nikkei fell 1% to 13,405  while Singapore Straits Times declined 1% to 3,164..

Back home, the key sectoral losers were metal, healthcare, realty and power while gainers included technology and software indices on the BSE.

The gainers included counters such as TCS and Infosys notching up nearly 1% each while Wipro rose 0.7%,Tata Motors gained 0.4%  while Reliance Industries was tad up 0.1% on the BSE.

The laggards included names like M&M falling 1.4%, ICICI Bank declined 1.3% , Sun Pharma fell 1.3% while HDFC was down 1% on the BSE.

The broader markets was negative with mid-caps and small-caps falling 0.1 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 482  stocks traded so far,  292 stocks declined  while 170 adcanced on the BSE.