Hardening rupee snaps 4-day straight gains

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Global signals

As of writing the European markets were trading flat with London Stock Exchange’s FTSE 100 trading 0.07% lower.

All the major Asian indices—from Kospi to Nikkei to Hang Seng—closed higher except the Sensex that ended 0.68% down. SGX Nifty closed 62 points lower.

US stock futures point to a higher start for Wall Street, as Apple and Verizon stocks are in focus.

Indian indices

On speculation that the hardening of the rupee could hit the revenues of information technology (IT) companies, the IT stocks went down and along went the market breaching its four-day-long gains.

On mildly tepid global equities, the Sensex opened seven points down, but turned up, and barely half hour into the trade touched the day’s high—72 points higher than its previous closing. Though the index traded positive in the first half it kept inching down. In the second half, the appreciation in the Indian rupee began to play out pressuring IT stocks and pushed the market 153 points down. At finishing line the Sensex quoted at 17590, 121 points lower. The Nifty closed the session 40 points lower at 5262.

Market sentiment

Advancing shares outnumbered trailing ones. On the BSE, 1,691 stocks advanced against 1,098 trailed. Ninety four stocks closed unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Stronger rupee continued to hit IT counter with BSE IT down by 2.19%. BSE Tech, down 1.62%, was second from the bottom. BSE Realty posted gains of 1.42% followed by BSE PSU that surged 0.80%.

On stocks’ front, Hindustan Copper was the star stock of the day posting gains of 8.25% followed by Corporation Bank that surged 7.88% and Bank of India that rose 5.28%. Among losers, Educomp Solutions slid the most by 3.27%, followed by Shriram Transport that fell 3.21% and Lupin that shed 3.10%.

Viewing volumes

Steel maker Ispat Industries was the most actively traded share with over 0.63 crore shares changing hands on the BSE followed by wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy (0.42 crore shares), public sector undertaking NMDC (0.42 crore shares), India’s second largest realty major Unitech (0.35 crore shares) and Industrial finance company IFCI (0.33 crore shares).