Indian Stock Markets Trade In Red; Rupee Approaches Its Record Low

Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark Sensex and NSE's Nifty opened in red in the morning session Wednesday, weighed down by a slump in the shares of Tata Motors. The choppy trading continued with India's largest automaker being the top loser in the BSE with a 9.03 percent or 24.80 points decline.

BSE Sensex was trading at 16,365.65, shedding 72.93 points or 0.44 percent at noon, and NSE Nifty was down by 25.40 points or 0.51 percent at 4964.70.

Tata Motors, part of Tata group, which is the largest business conglomerate in India by revenue, announced its fourth quarter results in after-market hours Tuesday. The results showed a 139 percent rise in its consolidated net profit.

The company's Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) unit posted earnings that missed analysts' estimates. Though the company's more than 100 percent surge in profits was driven by the JLR unit, the analysts say that there are indications of a slowdown in the unit's sale in future, as its margins could not meet the analysts' expectations. Furthermore, the company's lackluster performance in its core domestic market indicates tough going ahead for the Indian automaker.

Auto index was the worst hit among the sectors as Maruti and Mahindra & Mahindra were also trading lower along with Tata Motors. Banking sector shares were under pressure as major lenders like AXIS Bank, SBI and ICICI Bank were down.

Other losers in both Sensex and Nifty included Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Coal India, DLF, L&T and BHEL while Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, ONGC and Tata Power gained in the morning trade.

The CNX Midcap Index was down by 0.6 percent and the BSE Smallcap Index declined 0.3 percent. The market breadth was negative with 374 shares advancing and 777 declining in the NSE.

The weak regional cues and the drop in the value of the rupee also added pressure on the markets. The growing concerns about the European debt restructuring impacted the Asian markets as most of them were trading in red.

Falling Rupee

Erasing the recent gains made in the last four days, the Indian rupee Wednesday approached its record low against the dollar. The rupee was trading at 56.09/11 per dollar in the morning trade, as the risk aversion and domestic pressure for the dollar from importers and banks weighed heavily on the currency.

The euro hit a two-year low Wednesday on the euro zone economic woes and Spain's mounting debts. Egan-Jones downgraded Spain's credit rating for the third time in less than a month.