Weak rupee, global cues depress equity indices; rupee ends below 69 per dollar
Mumbai, July 19: Depreciation in the Indian rupee and domestic political uncertainty subdued the key Indian equity indices on Thursday.
In a major development, the rupee breached the 69 per dollar mark during the day, eroding investor sentiments in the equity market.
According to market analysts, decline in the major global markets also weighed on the Indian indices.
Index-wise, the wider Nifty 50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 10,957.10 points, lower by 23.35 points and 0.21 per cent from the previous close of 10,980.45 points.
The barometer 30-scrip BSE Sensex, which had opened at 36,509.08 points, closed at 36,351.23 points -- lower by 22.21 points or 0.06 per cent -- from its previous session's close of 36,373.44 points.
It touched an intra-day high of 36,515.58 points and a low of 36,279.33 points. The BSE market breadth was bearish with 1,802 declines against 791 advances.
"Market was range bound with a negative bias due to weakening rupee on account of surge in dollar index and ongoing trade spat," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
The rupee ended at 69.05 per dollar, weakening by 42 paise, from the previous close of 68.63 per greenback.
Nair further said that global cues are not clearly supporting domestic market direction and trade tensions between the US and other major economies are keeping investors on edge.
HDFC Securities' Head of Retail Research at Deepak Jasani said investors seemed to be "cautious ahead of a parliament debate on Friday, July 20, 2018 about a no-confidence motion" against the current NDA government.
Investment-wise, provisional data with exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors sold scrip worth just Rs 315.69 crore and the domestic institutional investors bought stocks worth Rs 470.02 crore.
Sector-wise, the S&P BSE consumer durables index gained the most, by 194 points, followed by the FMCG index, up 58.32 points and the energy rose by 27.30 points.
On the contrary, the S&P BSE capital goods index declined by 316.94 points, the healthcare index was down 170.96 points and the banking index fell by 115.35 points.
The major gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel, up 2.45 per cent at Rs 345.05; Vedanta, up 2.21 per cent at Rs 208.30; Yes Bank, up 1.93 per cent at Rs 391.20; ITC, up 1.71 per cent at Rs 272.90; and Adani Ports, up 1.39 per cent at Rs 369.15 per share.
The top losers were Kotak Mahindra Bank, down 3.69 per cent at Rs 1,350.25; Larsen and Toubro, down 2.61 per cent at Rs 1,255.55; Hero MotoCorp, down 1.22 per cent at Rs 3,458.90; Tata Steel, down 0.98 per cent at Rs 499.75; and Coal India, down 0.95 per cent at Rs 261.50 per share.
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Delegation requests for Karnataka HC Bench in coastal districts, hands petition to Chief Justice
Udupi: A delegation of the High Court Bench Struggle Committee met and submitted a petition to the Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru at the Circuit House urging the opening of a High Court Bench in the coastal belt as well as a Mobile High Court Bench in Mangaluru.
MLC and convener of the Committee Ivan D’Souza, who spoke to the Chief Justice on the occasion, explained that the people of the coastal belt find it difficult to travel to Bengaluru to fight a petition in the High Court. The problem only aggravated during monsoon. D’Souza added that there was a delay in clearing the cases of Udupi, Chikkamagaluru and Kodagu districts, which was causing further inconvenience to the people.
The MLC, who pointed out that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had also shown his preference for establishing a High Court Bench in the coastal region, requested for an approval to establish a Mobile High Court Bench first.
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Responding to this request, Chief Justice Bakhru assured to take action on the request as soon as possible.
The delegation included Mangalore Bar Association President Raghavendra HV, Dakshina Kannada Principal Government Pleader MP Noronha, General Secretary Sridhar H, Udupi Bar Association President Reynold Praveen Kumar, General Secretary Chandrashekhar Shetty, Vice-president Devadas V Shettigar and Brahmavar Bar Association President Kadoor Praveen Shetty.
