Sensex ends 200 points lower; Tata Steel among main losers

Benchmark indices closed the trading session on a lower note amid weakness in rupee against dollar, along with metal, financials and auto shares leading the fall.

The Sensex closed down 216 points at 19,782 and the Nifty slipped 62 points at 5,851.

The government will unveil country’s July factory data and August retail inflation data after the market hours. The factory output or IIP is expected to shrink for third straight month signalling persistent slowdown fears in Asia’s third-biggest economy.

Short positions in the Indian rupee fell to a four-month low as sentiment toward emerging Asian currencies improved on growing doubts the Federal Reserve will scale back its stimulus as aggressively as first feared, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.

At 15:45 hours, the rupee was trading at 63.68 against dollar.

India's slowing economy and its massive current account and fiscal deficits are not structural problems and can be fixed with modest reforms, newly appointed central bank Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Wednesday.

On the global front, Asian shares surrendered earlier gains while the dollar remained under pressure on Thursday, facing growing expectations that the US.

Federal Reserve's impending stimulus reduction might be smaller than some had believed.

A stronger yen and downbeat economic data helped push Japan's Nikkei stock average down 0.3 per cent.

European markets reversed initial gains and after Indonesia's central bank surprised markets with a quarter-percentage-point increase in its benchmark policy rate.

The government will decide on raising the retail prices of diesel and cooking gas in a few weeks,

the oil secretary said on Thursday, in a bid to cut the biggest item in its import bill and support the local currency.

Back home, BSE Metal index melted by almost 3% followed by counters like Banks, Consumer Durables, Auto, Oil & Gas, IT and Power, all falling down between 1-2%.

However, BSE Realty index gained by 1%.

The main losers on the Sensex were Tata Steel, Hero Moto, BHEL, ONGC, Maruti Suzuki and Coal India.

On the gaining side, Tata Power, GAIL, ITC, Cipla and NTPC surged between 1-3%.

The market breadth in BSE ended positive with 129 shares advancing and 355 shares declining.

SMART MOVERS

Shares of Hindustan oil Exploration Company (HOEC) jumped 5% to Rs 37 after the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) have approved the commerciality of ‘Dirok’ hydrocarbon discovery in Block AAP-ON-94/1 located in Assam-Arakan basin.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd ended higher by 20% at Rs 15.36 on reports that the group of ministers would be meeting today to look into affairs of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and MTNL.

Financial Technologies (FTIL), the promoter of the crisis-ridden National Spot Exchange, gained over 18% in an otherwise weak Mumbai markets amidst expectations that the group may get some relief from the speculated sale of NK Proteins, a borrower company.

Jaiprakash Associates slipped 12% on the Bombay Stock Exchange Thursday.

A day earlier, Manoj Gaur promoted Jaiprakash Associates announced that its subsidiary Jaypee Cement Corporation Limited entered in an agreement with Aditya Birla group company –UltraTech Cement Limited for sale of its Gujarat cement plant comprising an integrated 2.4 MTPA cement plant at Kutch and a 2.4 MTPA cement grinding unit at Wanakbori, in a Rs.3800 crores deal.