Sensex tanks 300 points; Rupee breaches 64/USD

Markets opened on a negative note this Tuesday with benchmark index, Sensex  inching below 18,000 levels in opening trades on concerns over depreciating rupee that hit a fresh all time low today.

Risk appetite dampened after government imposed new restrictions on foreign exchange outflows and gold imports earlier, in a new attempt to prop up the rupee, were also seen hampering an already slowing economy.

At 9:20AM, 30-share Sensex tanked 325 points to trade at 17,980 and the 50-share Nifty shed 104 points at 5,311 levels.

Foreign institutional investors sold Rs 6.80 billion of cash shares on Monday, exchange data showed, while domestic institutions were net buyers of Rs 3.72 billion of shares.

The broader markets dropped with mid-caps and small-caps falling over 1 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 633 stocks traded, 452 stocks declined while 171 stocks advanced on the BSE.


RUPEE

Despite recent measures from the central bank and the government to defend it, the rupee on Monday breached the 63-a-dollar barrier to close at 63.13, down 2.36 per cent from its previous close. This was the currency’s biggest single-day fall since September 22, 2011.

The partially convertible currency traded at 64.02 against the dollar in early trades on the Interbank Foreign Exchange market.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Globally, Asian stocks dropped on fear that the roll-back of US stimulus could spark selling pressure by the overseas investors in the equity space.  

Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.5% to 13,864, Singapore’s Straits Times fell 0.5% to 3,157, China’s Shanghai Composite index rose 0.4%  at 2,094 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.7% to 22,292 today.

Asian economies are struggling to ignite growth, fuelling pessimism in markets already concerned the Federal Reserve, which publishes minutes of its July meeting tomorrow, will start reducing bond purchases in September.

STOCK MOVERS

Domestically, the key sectoral indices dropped with realty, bankex, PSU, Healthcare, capital goods sectors dropped while  metal and IT indices gained on the BSE.

The gainers included IT shares such as TCS and Infosys which were tad up by 0.1% on the BSE.

The laggards were Hindalco Industries and Sterlite industries dropping 2-3%, HDFC shed 2%, ICICI Bank and SBI were down nearly 2% each on the BSE.