Sensex down 0.4% on Greece woes; Rupee hits 55.75/$

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty opened 0.4% lower on Wednesday following Greece concerns and sharp fall in rupee. The India rupee went down to 55.75 a dollar at open (a new all-time high), but immediately came off day's low to 55.65 a dollar, down 25 paise or 0.46% from previous close of 55.39 a dollar as reports suggested that RBI sold dollars.

The BSE benchmark was down 63.36 points to 15,963.05 and the NSE benchmark fell 19.60 points to 4,840.90.

Among Asian markets, only Shanghai was down just 0.44% while others were down 1.2-1.7% due to eurozone concerns.

Former Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos says preparations for the country's exit from the euro zone are being considered, but will be very damaging. He says such a move is unlikely to materialize but the risk is real.

Back home, Tata Power lost 3.5% after the company reported net loss at Rs 629 crore for the fourth quarter of FY12 as against profit of Rs 625 crore YoY.

Ambuja Cements, Sterlite, Hindalco, Tata Motors, SBI, SAIL, ICICI Bank, PNB, IDFC, ITC and Coal India were down 1-1.5%.

Reliance Industries slipped 1% as CNBC-TV18 reported quoting sources that Niko Resources will exit D4 block with RIL and BP due to size & risk issues, and current commercial environment in India.

However, GAIL, BPCL, Infosys, TCS, Wipro and HCL Tech outperform in early trade.

State-owned capital goods company BHEL was up nearly 1% ahead of Q4 numbers.

The CNX Midcap Index was down 26 points to 6,830. About two shares declined for every share rising on the National Stock Exchange.

In the second line shares, GMR Infra tanked 3.3%.

Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications fell 3% and 1%, respectively as brokerages downgraded telecom space.

HDIL, Manappuram Finance, Shree Renuka, VIP, Central Bank, Andhra Bank, S Kumars and Ashok Leyland lost 0.75-1.5%.

A2Z shot up 5% after Rakesh and Rekha Jhunjhunwala bought 26.5 lakh shares (more than 3.5% equity) of the company.

3i Infotech surged 5%. Wockhardt gained another 3.3% after rallying 8% yesterday due to better than expected performance at EBITDA level in Q4FY12.

Thomas Cook was up 0.9%, continuing yesterday's upmove further as parent company sold Indian unit to Fairbridge Capital.

PFC was up 0.6% and Indraprastha Gas rose 1.5%.