 "Sensex, Nifty tumble in global selloff, see biggest fall in 4 months")
Both the Sensex and the Nifty saw their biggest percentage falls since September 3 as a rout in emerging markets hit blue chips, while lenders declined on caution ahead of the central bank’s policy review.
The BSE Sensex closed at 20743.68, down 389.88 points, while the Nifty closed at 6135.85, down 130.90 points.
All sectoral indices ended in red today. The Nifty ended at its lowest closing level since December 17. The Sensex ended at its lowest closing level since January 7.
The empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on telecom, which met today, approved a spectrum usage charge (SUC) of 5 percent of the annual gross revenue for all new spectrum acquired in the auction.
At 63.11, the Indian rupee is trading at a 10 week low. The Indian currency is trading at its lowest level since November 15.
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Standard Chartered Bank is underweight on emerging markets at the moment. Rob Aspin, Senior Investment Strategist, Standard Chartered Bank says EMs were at risk on the back of stronger dollar and the Federal Reserve tapering.
“It would not surprise us if the currency weakens a little bit against the US dollar given our expectation that the dollar will strengthen against both currencies, but we do not see it hitting 70 at this point in time. It will be more or less range bound or 2-3 percent weakness from current levels,” he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.
Stocks in news:
Sensitive stocks such as bank stocks were affected the most. ICICI Bank fell 4.5 percent, while HDFC Bank closed 3.5 percent down.
FMCG major Hindustan Unilever closed 9.65 percent up. It reported stable numbers with the third quarter net profit growing 22 percent year-on-year supported by strong operational performance, beating analysts’ expectations. Revenue grew 9.4 percent to Rs 7,038 crore in the quarter ended September 2013 from Rs 6,433.7 crore in a year ago period, which was slightly lower than forecast.
Tata Motors fell 6.1 percent after the automaker’s managing director, Karl Slym, died when he fell from a hotel room in Bangkok in what police said on Monday could be a possible suicide.