Rupee recovery calms frazzled market

Equities witnessed a dramatic turnaround and regained lost ground after plunging to multi- year lows, earlier aided by a strong recovery in rupee value, though the benchmark Nifty ended lower by 13 points on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

A strong intervention from the apex bank, which helped the free-falling domestic currency to rebound from its all-time low and hectic short-covering in most beaten down stocks amid institutional buying mainly led to market rebound.

Extending a series of record lows, rupee crossed the psychologically key 64-mark in early trading on deteriorating investors' confidence following recent measures announced to curb capital outflow amid worsening macro economic situation.

Trading commenced with a sharp gap-down with the key indices crashing by over one per cent as panic-stricken investors started to offload stocks weighed down by sliding rupee value and remained under intense selling pressure.

However, bourses recouped most of its earlier losses in mid-afternoon session and briefly traded in positive zone amid violent swings before once again slipping back in to red.

Technology, healthcare, auto and infra-related stocks, alongwith smallcap and mid-cap continued to bleed, while banking, metal, fmcg, capital goods and realty counters attracted good buying support.

The 50-share Nifty fluctuated heavily between a high of 5,417.80 and a low of 5,306.35 before ending at 5,401.45, posting a modest fall of 13.30 points, or 0.25 per cent.

Meanwhile, the government raised the cap on foreign direct investment in asset reconstruction companies (ARC) to 74 percent from 49 percent, in bold bid to attract capital inflows to support sagging rupee.

On the global front, investors' sentiment remained hit by more turmoil in emerging markets on growing speculation about the Fed's intent to scale back its monthly stimulus effort amid caution ahead of the U.S. Central bank's latest policy meeting minutes release on Wednesday.

Among other markets in the Asia region, equities extended its sharp loses and tumbled to fresh multi-month low following Wall Street's overnight sell-off.

Tata Motors, ACC, HCL Tech, BHEL, Sun Pharma, M&M, TCS, Asian Paint, Lupin and Ambuja Cement were the top losers from the index bunch.

Among the gainers, Sesa Goa topped with a sharp 16.37 per cent jump. Other movers included JP Associates, BPCL, Tata Steel, Cairn, DLF, NMDC, IDFC, Coal India and ICICI Bank.

Turnover in the cash segment rose to Rs 12,654.01 crore from Rs 11,198.79 crore yesterday. A total of 7,110.68 lakh shares changed hands in 70,96,563 trades. The market capitalisation stood at Rs 58,09,729 crore.