Bloodbath at Dalal St: Sensex, Nifty crumble 2%; rupee weak

Moneycontrol Bureau
Live Market Commentary

3:50 pm Losers and gainers: Tata Power (down 15 percent) was the biggest loser in the Sensex while BHEL, HDFC, Strelite Industries and Tata Steel dargged. Tata Motors, Wipro and TCS were outperformers as technology stocks gained on rupee slide.

BSE Bankex and Bank Nifty down 4 percent each lost the most during the day. 

3:45 pm Market closing: The rupee at record low sends shivers down the equity markets. The Sensex slipped 449.22 points or 2.34 percent to ended at 18733.04 while the Nifty closed at 5542.25, down 143.15 points.

The rupee continued to tumble breaching the 61 per dollar mark again, and hitting record lows. The Indian currency is now hovering near the 61.50 per dollar mark.

In a reply in the Rajya Sabha, the finance minister today said that the government is closely monitoring external developments leading to the rupee's depreciation.

3:40 pm: Raghuram Rajan, the country's chief economic advisor, will take over the mantle of governorship of RBI from D Subbarao, who will retire in September this year.

3:30 pm Management speaks: JSW Steel, which operates a 10 million tonne steel plant at Karnataka is planning to hike steel product prices by 3-3.5 percent in current month following rupee depreciation, hike in international steel and iron ore prices, Seshagiri Rao, joint MD & Group CFO, JSW Steel told CNBC-TV18.

Market was disappointed with the increase in the company’s debt level at the end of June quarter. It reported net debt of Rs 29,200 crore. Rao explained that expenses and rupee depreciation had pushed up overall debt.  JSW Steel’s foreign currency debt currently stands at Rs 12,000 crore and rapidly depreciating rupee, which today hit lifetime low of 61.59 against dollar is going to create further trouble for the company.

3:25 pm FII view: Patrick Legland of Societe Generale told CNBC-TV18 that currently global investors are rebalancing their EM portfolios, with most of them taking money out from the region and redirecting it into either Europe or US.

He believes that India is just at the very beginning of money being pulled. "The rupee is falling and frankly if the investors do not see reforms being able to restructure the economy there is a risk of further downside on the rupee and maybe on the Indian market as well," he said.

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The carnage in Dalal Street continues as blood spills all around. The Sensex is almost  breathless with  a loss of 443.42 points at 18738.84 while the Nifty slips 140.25 points at 5545.15. About 567 shares have advanced, 1594 shares declined, and 127 shares are unchanged.

Both midcap and smallcap stocks are beaten out of shape as most stocks dragged.

BSE Realty Index lost 4.7 percent while Metal, Power, Capital Goods and Oil & Gas tumbled 3-3.75 percent. Defensives -FMCG Index dropped 2 percent.

Tata Power shares crashed 17 percent after reporting a loss of Rs 115 crore in April-June quarter as against profit of Rs 145.9 crore in a year ago period on higher interest cost and forex woes. More than 15 lakh shares added on short side.

BPCL and Asian Paints dropped more than 7 percent. BHEL , HDFC, Sterlite Industries and Bharti Airtel crashed over 7 percent.

Tata Motors gained 0.9 percent while TCS and Hero MotoCorp are marginally up.