Andrew L Dcunha
Mumbai, Sep 23: The BSE Sensex continued its downtrend seen yesterday and closed at 199.09 points to close at 16,162.06, The 30-share index touched intraday low of 16052.47 and high of 16368.41. Nifty ended at 4867.75 down 55.90 points. The broader index touched a high of 4930.25 and low of 4829.60 in trade today. Tata Motors (-5.37%), Hindalco Industries (-4.02%), SAIL (-3.48%), HDFC Bank (-3.45%) and Cairn India (-3.42%) were amongst the major Nifty losers. Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Metal Index was down 2.10 per cent, BSE Capital Goods Index fell 1.77 per cent and BSE Auto Index declined 1.65 per cent. BSE FMCG Index edged 0.16 per cent higher. Concerns of recession in the US, Euro Zone crisis and slow-down back home dented investors sentiments.
The BSE Sensex has shed more than 5% this week, backed by weak global macro-economic scenario, concerns over lower GDP growth and weakening Indian rupee
Indian rupee also slipped to 50 per dollar as risk averse foreign institutional investors chose to park liquidity in safe havens like government bonds and the US dollar. Howevr, it showed some strength on speculations of RBI's intervention Shares of IT companies moved higher on the back of weakness in Indian rupee. COMThe rupee has weakened nearly 7.2% against the dollar since late August
Asian stocks on Friday saw further losses in the wake of a global equity sell-off . However, most Asian markets pared losses moderately after finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of 20 major economies said that they would work together to try to end to the latest financial crisis engulfing Europe. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.4%, while the Shanghai Composite Index was 0.4% lower. , South Korea’s Kospi closed deep in the red, ending down 5.7%.
Gold fell more than 1% on Friday following similar trend in overseas markets, although the Indian rupee, which hit its lowest level in 28 months, kept the downside limited. The most-active gold for October delivery on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) was 0.34% lower at Rs 27,820 per 10 grams at 12:26 pm, after hitting a low of Rs 27,610 earlier. However, weaker rupee dented gold demand.
Andrew L D Cunha, Managing Director, WinWin Fin Advisory Pvt. Ltd. Mangalore. Email: finadvisoryltd@yahoo.com