Bombay Stock Exchange
Stock market highlights: Equity markets remained weak on Tuesday after hotter-than-expected services data for November spooked Wall Street investors overnight on Monday. A rebound in employment level, along with pick-up in service activity, fueled fears that the US Federal Reserve may stay on course regarding rate hikes.
Back home, nervousness ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) interest rate decision on Wednesday kept investors on the sidelines.
The indices were dragged by Tata Steel, BPCL, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Hindalco, UPL, Infosys, TCS, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, HCL Tech, Tech M, SBI, Hero Moto, and Maruti Suzuki. On the upside, Adani Enterprises, HUL, Bajaj Auto, Nestle India, PowerGrid, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, HDFC, and RIL lent support.
The broader markets, too, fell in tandem with the benchmarks with the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices dropping 0.53 per cent and 0.32 per cent, respectively.
Among sectors, the Nifty IT index fell 1.5 per cent, while the Nifty PSU Bank index gained 1.2 per cent.
Rupee back below 82
Extending its weakness into second straight day, the domestic currency weakened below the 82 per US dollar mark on Tuesday. The rupee lost nearly 80 paise in the intra-day trade and hit a low of 82.64/$. It, eventually, closed at 82.62 as against Monday’s close of 81.80 per USD.