Sensex opens flat, rupee weak; Bhel down 5%

The Indian markets opened flat today yet again. The BSE Sensex up 4.87 points at 20,899.81, Nifty rises 7 points to 6,222.25.

The Indian rupee opened flat at 62.40 per dollar on Thursday as against previous day’s closing of 62.39 per dollar.

[caption id=“attachment_1139333” align=“alignright” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption]

According to Ashutosh Raina of HDFC Bank, re-emergence of US Fed tapering expectations after a better than expected US ISM Manufacturing data pushed the US yields higher and the dollar strengthened against major as well as emerging market currencies.

FII flows started to taper which put pressure on EM currencies, he adds. Raina expects the rupee to trade in a range of 61.80-62.50/USD.

Meanwhile, the euro traded near one-week highs against the dollar and yen early in Asian trade as investors quickly switched gears after upbeat German data dampened the chances of any imminent interest rate cut from the European Central Bank.

More from Investing

MSMEs are breaking the traditional convention. Look who’s funding them Scale-up your startup without an investor! Here’s how

Stocks in news:

Reeling under dismal September quarter results, BHEL is down almost 5 percent. Jindal Steel, Bajaj Auto, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank are other laggards.

On the gaining side are NTPC, Sun Pharma, Coal India, Wipro and Dr Reddy’s Labs.

IT stocks are in the green on weak rupee. Wipro is up 0.85 percent while Infosys is up almost 1 percent.

Telecom stocks such as Bharti Airtel is down 0.32 percent, Idea Cellular is down 0.87 percent. The Telecom Commission has recommended setting reserve price forpan India 1800 MHz spectrum 15 percent higher and that for 900 MHZ auction 25 percent higher than than what the TRAI had recommended.