Endless bloodbath: Rupee at new low, Sensex plunges 200 pts

It’s a falling Friday at start as indices brace for a big gap-down, the global weakness is likely to continue weighing down the sentiments.The Sensex is down nearly 200 points to trade way below the psychological 16000 at 15827 and the Nifty is down 63 points at 4806. The endless bloodbath in world markets continues and it’s a no-brainer that the source of continued trepidation is Greece and growing concern about the possible spread of the debt contagion to Spain and Italy.

BSE auto index is down 1.9 percent, top sectoral loser; Bajaj Auto drops 2.8 percent and is the biggest loser in the auto index. Top Nifty losers include Bajaj Auto which is down 2.75 percent, Siemens loses 2.7 percent, Sesa Goa is down 2.12 percent. The BSE Small-Cap index and BSE Mid-Cap index was trading down 1%. Oil and Gas, FMCG, FMCG, Realty, Metal, Bankex, Power, PSU, HC, Auto, Consumer Goods are the losers.

Steep drop in commodities, especially crude, is a positive. But, unfortunately for India the crash in the rupee has eroded much of those gains. The rupee fell to a record low against the dollar for the third consecutive day today as risk aversion made a strong comeback with Asian stocks showing deep cuts and euro falling to a four-month low. The rupee was last trading at 54.67/68, breaching its previous all-time low of 54.60 hit on Thursday. It weakened as far as 54.71 in early trade.

The FIIs were net sellers of Rs 96.7 crore in the cash segment on Thursday while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers of Rs 254 crore, as per the provisional figures released by the NSE. The FIIs were net buyers of Rs 372 crore in the F&O segment on Thursday, according to the provisional NSE data.

Market expert Jim Rogers, the chairman of Rogers Holdings,expects more turmoil in the global financial markets after several Asian stock markets on Friday fell to four-month lows. “The world’s got serious problems facing it, I don’t particularly like saying it, but it’s true,” Rogers told CNBC.com on Friday morning in Singapore. “Unfortunately there will be more debt and currency turmoil to come.”

Moody’s cut 16 Spanish bank ratings by 1-3 notches including EU’s largest Banco Santander. Spanish bonds yield was at 6.25% and now market experts feel bond slide could see yields moving to 7%. Fitch downgraded Greece to CCC from B- and sees heightened risk of Greece exiting Euro.

The bleeding PSU oil marketing companies are rejoicing as the international crude prices continued their slide for the sixth day. Oil marketing companies are trading in the green - HPCL rises 1 percent, BPCL up 0.7 percent, IOC is up 0.2 percent.

Also, the export oriented stocks may get some boost as the government is likely to offer incentives on exports of labour-intensive items and is also planning to reward exporters who opt to diversify into new markets as part of its different measures to revive the country’s flailing export sector.

Results today: There will be some scrip specific actions to keep the markets buzzing, based on their earnings number. Alok Inds, Coal India, Deepak Fertilizers, Karnataka Bank, Manappuram Finance, Panacea Biotech, SBI, Tata Steel, Torrent Pharma and TV Today are among the many to announce their numbers today.

Bharti Airtel slashed its 3G data plan rates by up to 70 percent, a move that may change market dynamics, as it marks the first price reduction by an incumbent operator in three years. The stock is down 1.78 percent at Rs 293.

The Lodha group is in advanced talks to buy DLF ’s Mumbai land plot for $500 million (17 acre plot) Reports stated that the sale of the 17-acre plot is seen as part of DLF’s plan to sell some of its assets to pare debt of about $4 billion. DlF is down 1 percent in morning trade.

Speciality Resturants IPO closes today. It saw a poor response with a total subscription 0.02 times.

In a CNBC-TV18 exclusive, top government sources say that FDI in aviation is in final stages of approval and that a final decision is likely in three weeks. Jet Airways gained 2 percent on rising market share. Kingfisher Airlines went up 3.5 percent on hopes of FDI in aviation.