Rupee slump, high oil prices halt 6-week march of equity indices
Mumbai, Sep 8 : The Indian equity market snapped its six-week-long gaining streak during the September 3-7 period as the rupee fell to record low levels, coupled with high crude oil prices and decline in the global markets.
However, gains in the indices by the end of the week helped curb losses. Three out of the five sessions were negative during the period.
The rupee breached 72 a US dollar-mark for the first time. However, towards the week-end it recovered marginally following intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), analysts said.
Investor sentiments in the global markets were subdued due to high crude oil prices and persistent US-China trade tensions.
On a weekly basis, the S&P BSE Sensex closed at 38,389.82 points, lower 255.25 points or 0.66 per cent from its previous close.
Similarly, the wider Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange on Friday ended at 11,589.10 points, down 91.4 points or 0.78 per cent from the previous week's close.
Heavy selling pressure was witnessed from Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) both in cash and futures segments, said Rahul Sharma, Senior Research Analyst at Equity99.
However, towards the fag-end of the week, market recovered from early losses. Domestic indices rose for the second consecutive session on Friday on gains in auto, metal and technology stocks, according to Prateek Jain, Director, Hem Securities.
Value buying and recovery in the rupee from its lows in the later part of the week helped the indices rise on Thursday and Friday, thereby partially paring weekly losses.
Auto stocks gained after Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday announced that the government would do away with permits for commercial vehicles run on alternative fuels.
On the currency front, the rupee touched a record low of 72.11 per US dollar on Thursday, though it recovered to end the week at 71.73 per dollar -- 73 paise weaker from the previous week's close of 71 per dollar.
The rupee remained subdued for most of the week due to a rise in crude oil prices and a similar weak trend among its global peers.
In terms of investments, provisional figures from the stock exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors sold scrips worth Rs 789.60 crore and the domestic institutional investors bought stocks worth Rs 1,167.85 crore in the past week.
Figures from the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) showed that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) divested Rs 504.03 crore, or $70.06 million in the equities segment during September 3-7.
Sector-wise, the top gainers during the week were pharma, IT, metal and energy indices and the major losers were public sectors, FMCG and media indices, said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC securities.
The top weekly Sensex gainers were Wipro (up 7.43 per cent at Rs 324.05), Bajaj Auto (up 6.47 per cent at Rs 2,924), Tata Motors (DVR) (up 4.11 per cent at Rs 148.05), Tata Motors (up 3.89 per cent at Rs 277.50) and Reliance Industries (up 2.88 per cent at Rs 1,276.75 per share).
The major losers were Hindustan Unilever (down 7.96 per cent at Rs 1,638.95), Yes Bank (down 5.81 per cent at Rs 323.45), State Bank of India (down 5.50 per cent at Rs 291.85), ONGC (down 4.33 per cent at Rs 172.15) and Maruti Suzuki (down 4.01 per cent at Rs 8,732.55 per share).
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36 ex-judges slam Opposition move to impeach Justice Swaminathan
New Delhi (PTI): Thirty-six former judges on Saturday gave a call to people, including parliamentarians, to denounce opposition leaders' move to impeach Madras High Court judge Justice G R Swaminathan, saying such an attempt, if allowed to proceed, would cut at the very roots of democracy and independence of the judiciary.
On December 1, Justice Swaminathan held that the Arulmighu Subramania Swamy Temple was duty-bound to light the lamp at the Deepathoon, in addition to the customary lighting near the Uchi Pillaiyar Mandapam.
The single-judge bench said that doing so would not encroach upon the rights of the adjacent dargah or the Muslim community.
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The order sparked a row, and on December 9, several opposition MPs, led by the DMK, submitted a notice to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to move a motion for the removal of the judge.
Taking serious exception to the move, the former judges in a joint statement said this is a "brazen attempt to browbeat judges who do not fall in line with the ideological and political expectations of a particular section of society".
"If such an attempt is permitted to proceed, it would cut at the very roots of our democracy and the independence of the judiciary," they said.
"We therefore call upon all stakeholders -- Members of Parliament across party lines, members of the Bar, civil society, and citizens at large -- to unequivocally denounce this move and ensure that it is nipped in the bud at the very inception," they added.
The statement emphasised that the judges must remain answerable to their oath and to the Constitution of India, not to "partisan political pressures or ideological intimidation".
"The message from all constitutional stakeholders must be clear and firm: in a republic governed by the rule of law, judgments are tested by appeals and legal critique, and not by threats of impeachment for political nonconformity," it said.
The statement was signed by former Supreme Court judge Krishn Murari J as well as ex-chief justices and former judges of different high courts.
The statement said the opposition party's move is not an "isolated aberration". It fits into a "clear and deeply troubling pattern" in India's recent constitutional history, where sections of the political class have sought to discredit and intimidate the higher judiciary whenever outcomes do not align with their interests, it added.
"The unprecedented bid in 2018 to initiate impeachment proceedings against then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, the sustained campaigns of vilification directed at Chief Justices Ranjan Gogoi, S A Bobde and D Y Chandrachud while they were in office," the statement noted.
"The targeted attacks now being mounted against the incumbent CJI, Justice Surya Kant, whenever a judgment/remark displeases a political constituency, are all manifestations of the same trend," it said.
"This is not principled, reasoned criticism of judicial decisions; it is an attempt to weaponise impeachment and public calumny as instruments of pressure -- a practice that strikes at the heart of judicial independence and the basic norms of constitutional democracy," the statement added.
