Markets shed gains on rupee woes, Wockhardt gains 8% post strong results

The Sensex and the Nifty lost all their morning gains and faced almost 1 percent cuts as the rupee touched all time low of Rs 55.36 against the dollar. The rupee dipped as Japan’s sovereign rating was cut by one notch by Fitch.

Fitch warned that further downgrades are possible unless the government takes new fiscal policy measures to stabilise public finances and its ratio of debt to gross domestic product.

Sensex closed 0.97 percent down 16026 while Nifty closed 45 points down at 4860. IT, Teck and Consumer durables were the only indices that managed to stay in the green.

The biggest losers were metals, banks, realty and power which lost 1.83 percent, 1.51 percent and 1.45 percent respectively.

The biggest loser was Idea Cellular down 5.5 percent followed closely by Tata Power, Sesa Goa, Maruti Suzuki and Central Bank each being cut by almost 5 percent.

The biggest gainer was Wockhardt gaining 8 percent as the company beat the street estimates and posted a healthy fourth quarter margins. The company posted 32 percent jump in its sales this quarter. The company reported total sales of Rs 1241 cr as against Rs 938 cr in the same quarter in the previous year.

Hexaware and Glenmark Pharma also gained about 5 percent each.

Power Finance Corporation rose closed up 0.8 percent after net profit rose 34.69 percent to Rs 818.30 crore and total income rose 40.44 percent to Rs 3,684.29 crore in the fourth quarter over the same quarter last year.

Tata Communications fell 0.8 percent after the company reported consolidated net loss of Rs 261 crore for the fourth quarter, 2012 higher than net loss of Rs 156.5 crore in the same quarter last year.

Tata Motors closed 1.2 percent up on bargain hunting after the stock fell 12 percent in the preceding six sessions.

The Bank Nifty fell over 1.5 percent as country’s largest lender State Bank of India tanked 3.4 percent. Private sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were also down 1.23 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.

Engineering and construction major by sales Larsen & Toubro was down over 2 percent while capital goods company BHEL gained 1 percent.

However, global markets saw gains on speculation that European leaders would agree on fresh action to tackle the region’s debt crisis. Even the statement from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao saying need to give priority to maintaining growth also helped markets. Asian markets were down 0.6-1.6 percent at close while European markets were trading 0.6-0.8 percent higher.