Sensex down 90 pts

The Sensex fell for a consecutive session on Friday to mark its lowest close in almost a month as sustained fears that a weakening the rupee would lead foreign investors to pare positions hit blue chips such as HDFC Bank.

Falls also tracked weakness in other Asian markets, as the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index fell to a six-month low with investors fretting over US jobs data due later in the day.

The rupee weakened below 57 to the dollar, depreciating more than 5.5 per cent since the start of May, to approach a record low hit about a year ago.

The rupee's weakness is likely to keep the market volatile and could encourage further fund outflows, dealers said, noting that foreign institutional investors sold about Rs 5,050 crore of index futures in the last five trading sessions.

The benchmark BSE index fell 0.46 per cent, or 90.26 points, to 19,429.23, marking its lowest close since April 29 and ending 1.7 per cent lower for the week. The broader NSE index fell 0.68 per cent, or 40.40 points, to 5,881, closing below the psychologically important 5,900 level and declining 1.8 per cent for the week.

Blue chips fell with HDFC Bank dropping 0.9 per cent and Reliance Industries declining 1.1 per cent on continued fears that a falling rupee would lead foreign investors to pare positions.

Reliance Communications ended 1.2 per cent lower even after striking a $2.1 billion telecoms tower pact with Reliance Industries' telecommunications unit, Reliance Jio Infocomm, as income from the said deal was seen as lower than expectations, analysts said.

Reliance Industries will lease up to 45,000 mobile masts from Reliance Communications in a deal valued at more than Rs 12,000 crore over the lifetime of the contract, the Indian companies said.

Tata Motors fell 1.6 per cent on fears that China could impose retaliatory trade duties on luxury cars imported from the European Union may weigh on unit Jaguar Land Rover Ltd's earnings outlook.

Titan Industries ended 1.7 per cent down, falling for a sixth consecutive session, as India increased import duty on gold by a third to eight per cent on Wednesday, which was seen hurting its earnings outlook.

India is the world's biggest buyer of bullion and the government is seeking to halt a surge in demand that threatens to widen a record current account deficit.

Future Retail fell 3.1 per cent after the government said foreign supermarkets entering India must invest in new supply infrastructure, rather than buying existing assets.

New rules requiring foreign supermarkets to set up their own warehouses and stores in India are likely to further delay the entry of companies like Wal-Mart Stores Inc, increase costs and hurt cash-strapped local retailers eager to partner with foreign companies.

However, among stocks that gained, software exporters rose on value-buying and weak rupee, dealers said.

Tata Consultancy Services gained 3.3 per cent, while Wipro rose 1.5 per cent and Infosys ended 0.7 per cent higher.