Rupee at one-month low, markets still down as PM address no real issues

The rupee fell to a one-month low on Friday, extending losses for a third consecutive session, as the dollar strengthened against emerging Asian currencies and as a bout of risk aversion hit local stocks.

The rupee fell to as much as 62.53 to a dollar, a level last seen on December 4, as against Thursday’s close of 62.26/27.

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The Indian equity markets continued to trade loweras PM Manmohan Singh did not assert anything new in today’s presser. The Nifty has hit a two-week low slipping below 6200. The Nifty is down 43.95 points at 6177.20. The Sensex is down 136.32 points at 20752.01. About 814 shares have advanced, 1307 shares declined, and 633 shares are unchanged.

PM Manmohan Singh has ruled himself out as a PM candidate if UPA comes back to power. Rahul Gandhi has outstanding credentials to be the PM candidate, he said but refused to make any official announcement on the party’s candidate for elections 2014.

Singh said that the Congress party will announce its candidate for Prime Minister at an ‘appropriate’ time. “I am confident that the new generation of our leaders will also guide this great nation successfully,” he said.

On inflation, Singh feels that price rise could be a factor for people turning against Congress party. “Surge in international commodity, energy prices made effective price control difficult. We have not been successful in controlling persistent inflation primarily because food inflation has increased,” he said.

However market expert and BSE member Ramesh Damani remains optimistic on the market. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, he said the market is showing all signs of a classic bull market as share prices are still going up despite a lot of skepticism among investors. “That is leading to a left-out feeling and at some stage, investors would all jump in and start buying,” Damani said.

He said the undertone of the market was quite strong, and there was every reason to be optimistic. He said the sell-off in the last hour of trading on Thursday was more of a correction, and there was nothing to be worried about it.

Damani is bullish on IT, pharma and media stocks for 2014.