Sensex closes below 16,000, rupee breaches 56 against dollar

1:30 pm The markets have recovered and are off their day’s low. The BSE Sensex is at 15,951, up 104 points from the day’s low and off 51 points from the day’s high. Nifty is trading at 4,836, down 25 points. The market breath continues to remain negative. On the NSE, 915 stocks have declined while 464 advanced.

Rupee woes continue to haunt the market as it has breached the 56 mark against the dollar.The rupee has now fallen more than 5 percent this year against the dollar to make it the worst-performing Asian currency monitored daily by Reuters. It has dropped more than 13 percent from its 2012 high reached in February.

While the markers are falling steadily, there are some experts who feel that this is a good time to use the dip as a buying opportunity.

Nirmal Jain of IIFL says that it is better to play defensive now and as an investment strategy he prefers IT, pharma and FMCG stocks. However he did say that the market has a tendency to decline by another 15% from the current levels.

BHEL is up 1.9 percent to Rs 212 per share after the company posted net profit of Rs 3,380 crore vs Rs 2,798 crore in the corresponding year-ago.

Canara Bank fell 1.5% after consolidated net profit fell 17.16% to Rs 3,341.69 crore

Even the European markets do not seem to be offering any support as they tumbled after former Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos statement saying preparations for the country’s exit from the euro zone are being considered, but will be very damaging. European markets like France’s CAC, Germany’s DAX and Britain’s FTSE went down 1-1.5% in initial trade. Euro hits 21-month low of 1.26 against $.

Among the 30-share Sensex pack, 22 are in the red. Bharti Airtel, Tata Power and Hero MotoCorp are some of the top losers with a fall of 2-3 percent. Telecom stocks have fallen after Idea Cellular said that they would be cutting prices upto 70% on its 3G services. Idea Cellular (down 3.5%), Reliance Communications (down 1.2%), Tata Teleservices (down 1%) and MTNL (down 0.23%) are trading lower.

Reliance Inds is down 1.7 percent after one of its exploration partners Niko Resources said they have abandoned the D4 oil and gas block off India’s east coast, underlining the production problems in the region, as per Reuters.

In spite of this fall in the markets, there are still some stocks that are up. Wockhardt (7.8 percent), A2Z Maintenance (7.25 percent), DB Realty (5.86 percent) are some of the gainers.

11:30 am: Its another free fall for the markets as they continue to decline. Both the BSE and the NSE have fallen by 0.9 percent. The BSE Sensex, the barometer of the Indian economy, has broken the 15,900 mark and is now trading at 15,885, down 141 points while the Nifty is just 17 points from breaking the 4,800 level. The market breadth is negative. On the NSE, 941 stocks have fallen vs 366advanced.

Among the 30-share Sensex pack, 22 are in the red. Bharti Airtel, Tata Power and Hero MotoCorp are some of the top losers with a fall of 2-3 percent. Telecom stocks have fallen after Idea Cellular said that they would be cutting prices upto 70% on its 3G services.

Reliance Inds is down 0.68 percent . The stock had fallen fell 1.2 percent after one of its exploration partners Niko Resources said they have abandoned the D4 oil and gas block off India’s east coast, underlining the production problems in the region, as per Reuters.

11:30 am: Its another free fall for the markets as they continue to decline. Both the BSE and the NSE have fallen by 0.9 percent. The BSE Sensex, the barometer of the Indian economy, has broken the 15,900 mark and is now trading at 15,885, down 141 points while the Nifty is just 17 points from breaking the 4,800 level. The market breadth is negative. On the NSE, 941 stocks have fallen vs 366 advanced.

Indian markets have been affected by the sharp fall in the rupee which has been hitting fresh lows and is very close to breaking the 56 mark against the dollar. It hit a fresh low of 55.91 in the mid-morning session.

[caption id=“attachment_318460” align=“alignleft” width=“435” caption=“The rupee continued to hit new lows and dragged markets down as well. Reuters”] [/caption]

Experts are also saying that the markets are out of breath now. “The tug-of-war is far from over and it seems only government’s strong impetus will boost sentiment” said UR Bhat, MD of Dalton Capital Advisors. He added thatthe Nifty may fall to 4700 in the near-term.

Anil Manghnani, Modern Shares & Stock Brokersis a step ahead as he feels that Nifty may revisit the levels of 4,500 later in the year. “No doubt in my mind that overall the trend still suggests that maybe sometime later in the year, 4,500 should be revisited”, he told CNBC TV-18.

Clearly, worries about high fiscal deficit and current account deficits, a falling rupee, foreign investors exiting and the downgrades by research firms like Morgan Stanley are playing havoc on the markets.

All the BSE sectoral indices are in the red led by consumer durables and autos. Among the 30-share Sensex pack, 27 are trading in the red. Tata Power (-3 percent), Maruti Suzuki (-2.6 percent) and Hero Moto Corp (-2) are some of the biggest losers. Gail, BHEL and SBI are the only three stocks that have managed to keep their head above water.

Gail is up 2.7 percent over news that state-owned energy companies from India and Pakistan may sign a 20-year agreement with Turkmenistan to purchase up to 33 billion cubic meters of gas a year through pipelines via Afghanistan.

Tata Power is down 3 percent after it reported a net loss of Rs 628 crore in March quarter vs a net profit of Rs 625 crore in the corresponding year-ago quarter.

Stocks that hit a 52-week low are :

PNB hits 52-week low at Rs 706.1 per share

OnMobile hits a 52-week low at Rs 42.35 per share

Kohinoor hits a 52-week low at Rs 26.25 per share.

Bharti Airtel hits a 52-week low at Rs 288.5 per share