Clouds of crisis loom over stock market, rupee gains momentum

Mumbai : The stock market has gained attention today after gaining momentum for the last several days. The market momentum which started with gains this week has come to a halt. In today's trading, both the indices of the domestic market have registered a decline. However, a good news is coming from the currency exchange market as today the rupee has strengthened against the US dollar.

The market has declined due to continuous withdrawal of foreign capital and sluggish trend at the global level. In today's pre-opening session, BSE Sensex is showing a fall of 485 points. With this fall, this index is trading at 76,557.79 points.

Due to weakness in the dollar, the rupee rose by 3 paise to 86.58 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday. Foreign exchange traders said that due to high crude oil prices and unstable global trends, withdrawal of foreign capital from the domestic markets continued, which also affected the Indian currency i.e. rupee.

Among the 30 companies listed in the Sensex, shares of Infosys and Axis Bank have declined by more than 5 percent. Shares of HCL Tech, IndusInd Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, and ICICI Bank also suffered losses. On the contrary, the shares of Reliance Industries are seeing a rise of more than 2 percent. Shares of Larsen & Toubro, Nestle, Tata Motors and Asian Paints have also made huge gains.

In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi and Japan's Nikkei were in loss, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng and China's Shanghai Composite were in profit. US markets closed with a negative trend on Thursday.

The rupee opened at 86.60 per dollar in the interbank foreign exchange market. In early trade it reached 86.58 against the dollar, which shows an increase of 3 paise compared to the previous closing price. The rupee had closed at 86.61 against the US dollar on Thursday. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the US dollar's position against six major currencies, stood at 108.80, down 0.02 per cent.

International standard Brent crude rose 0.39 percent to $ 81.61 per barrel. According to stock market data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were sellers on Thursday and sold shares worth a net Rs 4,341.95 crore.