Sensex up 34 points to end at 22,986, rupee closes at 68.23 vs dollar - Hindustan Times
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Sensex up 34 points to end at 22,986, rupee closes at 68.23 vs dollar

PTI | By, Mumbai
Feb 12, 2016 08:36 PM IST

The benchmark BSE Sensex regained the 23,000-mark by recovering over 164 points in Friday’s early trade mostly driven by a value-buying in blue-chips and some encouraging earnings numbers.

A day after bloodbath, the benchmark BSE Sensex on Friday managed to end 34 points higher at 22,986.12, but logged its biggest weekly fall in over six years as fears of a global slowdown and disappointing quarterly numbers of blue-chips, especially banks, hammered stocks during the week.

The rupee regained 7 paise on Friday to end at 68.23 per dollar on fresh selling of the American currency by banks and exporters in view of mild recovery in domestic equities.

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Investors are fleeing risky assets and running to safe havens like gold and bonds. Both the indexes recorded their biggest weekly fall since July 2009 with Sensex falling 1,631 points or 6.62% and Nifty down 508.15 points or 6.78%.

The total investor wealth, measured in terms of cumulative value of all listed stocks on BSE, slumped by over Rs 7 lakh crore during the torrid week.

Moreover, since the start of the year, the Sensex has lost around 3,131.42 points or 12% and logged weekly fall in five out of six weeks since then.

Sinking to its lowest level in 21 months, Sensex on Thursday crashed 807 points to drop below 23,000-mark as concerns over global economy and mounting bad loans wiped off over Rs 3 lakh crore from the wealth of panic-stricken investors.

The Sensex has come off more than 23% from its all-time peak of over 30,000, scaled nearly a year ago on March 4, 2015.

The rupee resumed lower at 68.40 per dollar as against Thursday’s closing of 68.30 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market and dropped further to 68.47 on initial demand for the US currency from importers in view of sustained foreign capital outflows.

However, it recovered afterwards to 68.14 on fag-end selling of dollars by banks and exporters due to weakness in greenback in global markets before ending at 68.23, showing a gain of 7 paise or 0.10%.

The rupee had closed at 68.30 per dollar on Thursday.

The weaker dollar overseas also boosted the rupee value, a forex dealer said. The domestic currency hovered in a range of 68.14 and 68.47 per dollar during the day.

The dollar index was up 0.13% against a basket of six currencies in the late Asian trade.

In the overseas market, the yen weakened moderately against its rivals during Asia trade today, as Japanese authorities’ talking failed to give a new direction to the perceived safety of the Japanese currency.

However, the US dollar fell to a 15-month low against the yen yesterday, on track for its worst week against the Japanese currency since 2008, as fears of a global economic slowdown and concerns about stress in the banking system increased demand for safe havens.

A fall of 20% from an all-time peak is considered as a ‘bear market’ -- a term used for a sustained slide.

Meanwhile, attributing the recent crash in stock market to global factors, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said there was no need for “exaggerated panic” and investors should keep the economy’s inherent strength in mind while investing.

The sensex resumed higher at 23,060.39 and hovered in a range of 23,161.15 TO 22,600.39 before ending at 22,986.12, showing a gain of 34.29 points or 0.15%.

The NSE Nifty moved up marginally by 4.60 points or 0.07% to close at 6,980.95 still closing at 21-month low.

Shares of Tata Motors ended 8.34% higher at Rs 298.650, while Bharti Airtel rose 5.40% to Rs 325.25.

Car sales fell for the first time after 14 months of continued growth in January as discounts dried up during the month with automakers correcting inventory at dealer levels post year-end freebies dole out.

Overseas, Asian stocks fell as investors continued to dump riskier assets. Nikkei tumbled 4.84%, while Hong Kong and South Korea indexes fell sharply by 1.22% and 1.41%, respectively.

European were trading higher, rebounding from previous session’s steep losses, with some encouraging results and a rally in oil prices helping banks and commodity-related stocks to regain ground. Key indices in France, Germany and the UK rose by 1.25% to 1.68%.

In the domestic market, 15 scrips out of the 30-share Sensex ended higher while.

Major gainers were Tata Motors 8.34%, Bharti Airtel 5.40%, M&M 3.77%, Axis Bank 3.52%, NTPC 2.44%, Sun Pharma 2.09%, HUL 1.53%, HDFC 1.47%, TCS 1.39% and ITC 0.52%.

However, BHEL fell 13.13% followed by Adani Ports by 5.20%, ONGC 4.56%, L&T 3.53%, Tata Steel 3.18%, ICICI Bank 2.58%, Lupin 2.36%, Cipla 2.29%, GAIL 1.99% and RIL 1.75%.

Among sectoral and industrials indices, telecom rose by 5.56%, auto 1.72%, teck 1.02%, utilities 0.61%, FMGC 0.39% and IT 0.25%.

While, capital goods fell 3.05%, oil&gas 2.47%, energy 1.95%, realty 1.26%, metal 1.25%, industrials 0.86% and Healthcare 0.77%.

Mid-cap and Small-cap indices fell by 0.78% and 1.21%, respectively.

The market breadth remained negative as 1,702 shares ended lower, 881 advanced, while 130 ruled steady of the total 2,713 stocks traded.

The total turnover rose to Rs 3,700.15 crore from Rs 2,972,11 crore on Thursday.

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