Rupee Weakens, Indian Stocks Open High Ahead of Derivative Expiry

On Wednesday, BSE Sensex opened higher at 25,443.63 points and Nifty too surged at 7581.60 points. On Tuesday, Sensex closed at 25,368.90 points and Nifty at 7580.20 points.

 The rupee weakened by 19 paise to 60.32 versus the dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market. However on Tuesday, the rupee was at  60.13 per dollar following expansion in the Chinese manufacturing sector.

The Bombay Stock Exchange index fell by 0.04 percent and broader National Stock Exchange fell by 0.06 percent after 10.20 am, ahead of the expiry of June derivatives on Thursday and concerns regarding the Iraq crisis.

Top gainers from BSE on Wed June 25, 11 am

Top losers from BSE on Wed June 25, 11 am

While the top gainers from NSE were Visesh Infotecnics, Wheels India Ltd, FCS Software Solutions, Kwlity Ltd and Zicom Electronic Security System, top losers were Avonmore Capital and Management Service, Yantra Natural Resources, Trio Mercantile, Sree Rayalaseema Alkalies-Allied Chemicals and Dhanus Technologies.

Foreign investors bought Indian shares worth ₹2.84 billion and ₹9.54 billion in index futures and option on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

Shares of Infosys rose 0.6 percent, while Reliance Industries fell by 0.5 percent. To reduce debt, Reliance Communication invested $804 million to sell shares, which resulted in decline in shares by 2.2 percent on Tuesday. The company said it would sell shares for 5 percent discount to cut debt and attract more investors.

Moreover, Reuters reported that, shares of India's road developers surged on Wednesday after Nitin Gadkari announced plans to raise road-construction capacity to 30 kms per day in two years from the present three kilometres. Hence, IRB Infrastructure Developers surged by 5.9 percent, while KNR Constructions gained 5.8 percent on Wednesday.

Shares of Indian Finance companies surged as Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday permitted Non-Banking Financial Sectors to work as business correspondents for banks.

''As per extant instructions, Non-banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) are not allowed to be appointed as Business Correspondents (BCs) by banks. It has been decided that banks will be permitted to engage non-deposit taking NBFCs (NBFCs-ND) as BCs, subject to the following conditions,'' RBI said in a press release.

Following this release, Mannapuram Finance Ltd surged 4.7 percent, while Muthoot Finance shares gained 2.5 percent on Wednesday.

Besides, shares of Dredging Corp of India gained 4.9 percent, based on algorithmic trading or automated trading. The stock price recorded ₹445.90 with an increase of ₹15.60.

"Volumes being much higher than yesterday and price tradingabove previous weekly closing among other factors are pointing towards heavy algorithm-based buying in Dredging Corp," Reuters quoted Nilesh Dedhia, algorithmic trading specialist.

Meanwhile, Asian stock indices were on the back foot on Wednesday, following the ongoing Iraq crisis and the United States' decision to ease up on crude exports. Nikkei recorded 15,266.61 points with a decrease of 109.63 points, while Hang Seng recorded 22,870.20 points with a decline of 10.44 points at 12:30 pm on Wednesday.

Besides, US markets too recorded low. Dow slipped to 16,818.13 points with a decrease of 119.13 points and NASDAQ declined at 4350.35 points. In Europe, FTSE 100 index also saw decreases at 6787.07 points with a drop of 13.49 points. However, DAX and CAC 40 recorded high during trading hours.

At 12:30 pm, the rupee recorded 60.2850 per dollar and the price of other major currencies versus dollar is as below:

The British Pound fell after the Governor's decided that Bank of England would not raise interest rates this year. The US treasury's price surged on Tuesday with high inflows that turned the tables of Wall Street declining equities, due to the geopolitical worries caused by the Iraq crisis.