Rupee touches a record low of 51.90, could slip further

India’s largest bank,State Bank of India, on Monday made it more attractive for non-residents to park their dollars in India as the rupee fell to an all-time low of 51.90/92 against the dollar.

The rupee fell as a slump in key economic data, including a five-year low third quarter growth rate, and an arbitrage with offshore derivatives pressured the currency. The rupee had closed at 51.10/12 on Friday. Dealers said despite the Reserve Bank’s intervention, the rupee saw a massive fall against the dollar.

Foreign institutional investors have sold $1.7 billion of Indian shares in the first two months of the year, after selling more than $13 billion last year when the rupee fell more than 19%.

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Marketts end 2 day rally, Sensex dips 513 points

Key equity indices snapped their two-day gains and ended in the negative terrain on Wednesday. Intense selling pressure, coupled with weak global cues and sustained selling by foreign funds, forced the market to remain under pressure throughout the day.

The 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) plunged by 513.49 points, or 4.81%, and closed the day at 10,169.90 points.

Earlier in the day, the Sensex opened with a negative gap and touched an intra-day high of 10,484.45 points and fell to a low of 10,128.22 points. The broader Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also lost 169.75 points or 5.25%, ending at 3,065.15 points.

Amitabh Chakraborty, president-equity at Religare Securities Ltd, said, “Japanese and Korean markets were down significantly. This spooked the sentiment further. The dollar has strengthened against all major currencies but the euro is down sharply.” Intense selling was witnessed in metals, realty and banking sector stocks, which were the worst hit among the BSE sectoral indices.

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Sensex plunges 506 points: rupee breaches 47 a dollar

The rupee slipped below 47 to a dollar-a two-year low and the BSE Sensex plunged to its lowest level in two months, closing out at 12,595.75, as Indian markets fell in tandem with their Asian and European peers on Monday. FIIs pulled out $149.8 million in equities from domestic markets.

Real estate and banking stocks led the rout with ICICI Bank dropping 12% to its lowest in more than two years. IT stocks also plunged on fears that the global financial crisis will reduce software spends.

The Sensex fell 506.43 points, or 3.9%, to 12,595.75, the steepest since July 29. All but one of the 30 stocks in the benchmark index declined as it touched a one and a half year low of 12,402.84 points during the session.The S&P CNX Nifty of the NSE slid 135.20 points, or 3.4%,to 3,850.05.

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Rupee slide persists

The rupee fell the sharpest in a decade on speculation that the trouble on Wall Street would lead to emerging-market asset sell-offs by jittery global investors.The currency hit its lowest level against the dollar in more than two years. The Sensex also fell for a sixth day in tandem with equity markets world wide. It lost a marginal 12.47 points to end at 13,518.80, heading for its first annual loss since 2001.

The rupee may come under more intense pressure as FIIs continue to hawk Indian equities. The Indian currency ended at 46.89/90 against the dollar, off a trough of 46.99-its lowest since July 24, 2006-as banks arbitraged with a weaker overseas market. Dealers suspected RBI intervened to halt the slide just short of 47 against the greenback. JPM organ forecasts the rupee to drop to 47 by the end of the year. The rupee was the second biggest loser among the ten most active currencies in Asia outside Japan on Tuesday.

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