Falling for the fifth consecutive day, Sensex closed after losing 113.24 points at 20,570.28 on Monday. The broader index, Nifty lost 43.80 points and finally closed at 6,101.10. As per experts, stock markets fell as investors turned cautious and booked profits ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s policy review meeting.
As published by The Pioneer in its October 28 edition, Indian stock markets started the week with volatile session in which FMCG index fell the most by 2.56 per cent. Real estate and metal indices also came under pressure and lost 2.1 per cent and 1.63 per cent respectively as investors booked profits after the recent rally.
Consumer durable and capital goods indices help restrict the fall as they rose by 1.29 per cent and 0.98 per cent respectively. Sensex has lost over 300 points in the last five sessions as it tumbled down from its near three year high of 20,882 on October 18.
Just like the equity markets, domestic currency also ended on a weaker not as it slipped by six paise to Rs 61.52 per dollar. Forex experts said that rupee came under pressure due fresh dollar demand from importers, mainly oil refiners.
“Since the last one week, the rupee has been trading in the range of Rs 61.20-61.80 per dollar. This shows that there is a lack of direction,” said Abhishek Goenka, CEO of India Forex Advisors. He further added that, “Tomorrow’s RBI monetary policy will be keenly watched, where a 25 bps repo rate hike is widely expected.”
The dollar index also rose by 0.05 per cent against a basket of six major global rivals. Forward dollar premiums ended slightly better. The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in March edged up to 213-1/2-215-1/2 paise from 213-215 paise previously, while far-forward contracts maturing in September rose to 441-444 paise from 439-442 paise.