Journalism of Courage
Wiping out most of its early losses,the Samp;P BSE benchmark Sensex today closed almost flat on revival of buying by funds after marginal recovery in rupee from record lows and the government announced steps to revive investment climate. After falling to 19,126.82 points intra-day,Sensex managed to close with just a loss of 2.64 points,or 0.01 per cent,at 19,345.70. The gauge has now lost over 955 points in six sessions.
Similarly,the broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty lost 13.05 points,or 0.23 per cent,to 5,742 led by banking and interest-related stocks. Also,SX40 index,the flagship index of MCX-SX,closed at 11505.51,down 51.04 points or 0.44 per cent. Rupee plunged to 61 per dollar before trading at 60.88 when the stock market was closing,after Finance Minister P Chidambaram said government will take measures to attract long term non-resident Indian funds. Global markets are keenly awaiting US GDP data release and a policy statement following Fed8217;s 2-day meet later today. Brokers said a volatile rupee raised concerns that the RBI may have to extend its liquidity tightening measures for a longer-than-expected period.
The realty sector index suffered the most by losing 2.30 per cent to 1,316.95,followed by FMCG index by 2.26 per cent to 6,791.78. Banking index dropped by 1.84 per cent to 11,440.96 and power index by 1.67 per cent to 1,495.56.
