Markets end lower on high CAD, weak rupee

Markets ended lower on Tuesday, amid a weakening Rupee, after the Reserve Bank of India asked the government to control the widening account deficit and also lowered growth forecast for the current fiscal. Meanwhile, the central bank kept key policy rates unchanged at its policy review today.

The 30-share Sensex closed down 236 points at 19,357 and the Nifty closed down 71 points to close at 5,761.
 
Weighed down by a weak rupee, the Reserve Bank today chose to keep all key interest rates unchanged and asked the government to take urgent steps to rein in the high current account deficit.

“It has been decided to keep the repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility unchanged at 7.25%. The reverse repo rate under the LAF, determined with a spread of 100 basis points below the repo rate, stands at 6.25%,” RBI said in a statement.

Lowering the GDP growth projection for the current fiscal to 5.5% from 5.7%, the central bank said the external sector is the "biggest threat" to economic stability.

It also said that the recent liquidity tightening measures, taken to support the rupee, will be rolled back in a calibrated manner as stability is restored to the foreign exchange market, enabling it to revert to the policy of supporting growth with continuing vigil on inflation.

The RBI said it will endeavour to keep inflation, which is under threat from a depreciating rupee, at 5% by March end.

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Global Markets

In Asian trading, Japan's Nikkei bounced 1.5% as the yen eased though stocks elsewhere in the region finished flat as China's central bank's first injection of funds into money markets since February was balanced by some mixed data.

Hong Kong shares crept higher in anemic trade, lifted by strength in the Chinese banking sector. The Hang Seng Index ended up 0.5% at 21,954 points and the Shanghai Composite advanced 0.7%.

The European markets too were trading higher with all the major indices FTSE, CAC and DAX trading up 0.02-2%.

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Sectors & Stocks

Among the sectoral indices, only IT index closed in the positive with a 0.9% gain on the back of a weak rupee. Among the ones in the red, Oil & Gas, Realty, Power and PSU indices gave off 3% each along with Auto, FMCG and Metal indices losing 2% each.

The only gainers among the Sensex-30 were IT majors -- Wipro, TCS and Infosys which advanced 0.6-2.7%. Jindal Steel, L&T, Sun Pharma and Coal India up 0.6-1.4% rounded off the gainers list.

Among the ones in the red were Oil & Gas majors Reliance Industries, ONGC and Gail India down 3-6%.

From the metal pack, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Sterlite lost sheen, which slipped 1-4.6%.

Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp gave off 0.3-4%.

FMCG majors ITC and Hindustan Unilever too closed in the negative, down 2% each.

Bharti Airtel, NTPC, BHEL and Tata Power were the other major losers 2-3.7%.

The market breadth was very negative. 1,563 stocks declined while 705 stocks advanced on the BSE.