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Markets extended drop in the morning session this Wednesday on fear over overseas outflows after Rupee once again breached 60 levels against dollar.
The rupee today fell by 37 paise to again slip below the 60 mark at 60.03 in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market, on heavy dollar demand tracking strengthening of the US currency overseas.
This is the first time since June 27 that the domestic currency has fallen below the 60 level. Rupee had touched an all-time low of 60.76 against the dollar on June 26.
Addong to the woes was oil concerns after crude oil rallied above $100 a barrel for the first time in nine months on brewing political concerns in Egypt.
US crude oil futures spiked 1.07% to $105 a barrel after Egypt’s military gave President Mohamed Mursi an ultimatum to restore stability amid nationwide protests, global agencies reported.
Although Egypt doesn’t export oil, it serves as a transit hub for oil through the Suez Canal and the Suez-Mediterranean pipeline.
At 10:30AM, the 30-share Sensex dropped 222 points at 19,241 and the 50-share Nifty declined 65 points at 5,792 levels.
Asian stocks traded lower on global growth recovery concerns. US payrolls and jobless claims data scheduled later this week will be watched out for that will help gauge the prospects for the Federal Reserve to taper the bond-buying program.
Nikkei dropped 0.6% to 14,014, Singapore Straits Times declined 1.3% to 3,135, China’s Shanghai Composite index was down 1.7% at 1,971 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 2% to 20,248 today.
Back home, barring healthcare and technology index, all the key sectoral indices dropped with oil & gas, realty, consumer durables, metal leading the drop on the BSE.
The gainers included counters such as HUL rising 1%, Sun Pharma gained 0.25% and Infosys rose 1.2% on the BSE.
The laggards were Tata Steel slumped 4%, ONGC falling 1.6%, Jindal Steel dropped 2%, Hindalco and Sterlite Industries fell 3.5-3.6% respectively while Reliance Industries shed 2% on the BSE.
The key stock movers included counters such as Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers which has dipped nearly 10% to Rs 56.80 on back of multiple block deals on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The stock opened at Rs 62.60 and hit a high of Rs 64.50 so far.
Hindustan Copper has opened lower by 2.3% at Rs 71, extending its previous day’s nearly 7% fall on BSE, after the government has fixed floor at Rs 70 per share for its 4.01% stake sale via offer-for-sale (OFS) today. The floor price is 3.65% discount to Tuesday’s closing price of Rs 72.65 on BSE.
The broader markets traded lower with mid-caps and small-caps falling 0.6-1 per cent on the BSE.
The market breadth was negative. Out of 1,755 stocks traded so far, 991 stocks declined while 672 advanced on the BSE.
