Indian rupee down 37 paise at 62.94 vs US dollar

The Indian rupee extended its losses for the second day in a row, declining by 37 paise to 62.94 against the US dollar in late morning trade, on sustained demand for the US currency from banks and importers. The rupee resumed lower at 62.85 per dollar against the last closing level of 62.57 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market and dropped further to 62.98 before quoting at 62.94 at 10.40 am. It hovered in a range of 62.79 and 62.98 per dollar during the late morning deals. Banks and importers preferred to increase their dollar position on the back of firm dollar in overseas market. In New York market, the US dollar rose against the euro on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve minutes suggested more willingness among officials to slow its bond buys, at the same time the European Central Bank is mulling a potential deposit-rate cut into negative territory if more economic stimulus is needed. The BSE Sensex dropped by 245.43 points, or 1.19 per cent, to 20,389.70 at the same time.

BSE Sensex trades higher on sustained buying by funds, retail investors BT Online Bureau

 
The BSE Sensex gained over 69 points in early trade on Tuesday on sustained buying by funds and retail investors amid a strengthening rupee.

The buying took place mainly in realty, metal, capital goods, oil and gas and IT sector stocks.

Brokers said sentiments remained firm on sustained buying by participants driven by the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) plans to inject Rs 8,000 crore into the financial system to ease liquidity and further strengthen the rupee.

Rising for the third straight session, the 30-share index of the Bombay Stock Exchange gained 69.59 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 20,920.33.

In the past two sessions, the Sensex had gone up by 656.34 points.

The 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange traded 18.80 points, or 0.30 per cent, higher at 6,207.80.

In the Asian region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.53 per cent while Japan's Nikkei shed 0.73 per cent in early trade on Tuesday.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.09 per cent higher after crossing 16,000 points for the first time in Monday's trade.

Indian rupee leads Asia forex gains against dollar

Singapore: The rupee led gains among emerging Asian currencies on Monday as investors cut bearish bets on regional units, with the dollar softer amid uncertainty over how long the US Federal Reserve will keep up its policy stimulus.

The rupee rose nearly 1 percent on demand from foreign banks.

The won strengthened to 1,057.8 per dollar in the local trade, its strongest since October 24. Against the yen, the won touched 10.5603, its highest since September 2008.

Exporters` bids led offshore and onshore investors to cover short positions to stop losses in the South Korean currency. The positions had been built up on caution over possible intervention, traders said.

The Malaysian ringgit gained as the economy picked up pace in the third quarter on resilient domestic demand and a recovery in exports.

The ringgit found more support from demand by oil exporters demand and stop-loss dollar selling.

The Indonesian rupiah, however, eased on month-end dollar demand from local corporates. The rupiah is the worst performing Asian currency this year.

Tata Steel shares gain over 3% on earnings, China reforms

Mumbai: Shares of Tata Steel on Monday gained over 3 percent after the company last week posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 916.77 crore for the second quarter ended September 30.

Tata Steel's scrip settled for the day 2.86 percent higher at Rs 386.05 on the BSE, adding to Thursday's 4.58 percent gain. In intra-day, the stock rallied 3.25 percent to Rs 387.50.

At the NSE, the stock climbed 3.29 percent to close at Rs 387.70.

In terms of volume, 12.13 lakh shares of the steel major changed hands on the BSE, while over 73 lakh scrips were traded at the NSE during the day.

The turnaround, from a Rs 363.93 crore net loss in the same quarter last fiscal, was driven by steady ramp-up of Indian operations and improved performance at the European and South East Asian operations, the company had said on Wednesday.

Besides, sentiment also got a boost from expectations of a higher demand for steel after China's government said it would carry out broad reforms.

Meanwhile, the broader market was also strong with the benchmark Sensex surging 451.32 points to close at 20,850.74.

Fund raising via debt placement dips 25% to Rs 1.22 lakh cr

 
New Delhi: Fund-raising by Indian companies through private placement of debt securities or bonds dropped 25 percent to Rs 1.22 lakh crore in the first half of the current fiscal (2013-14).

According to a report by Prime Database, firms garnered a total of Rs 1,22,091 crore during April-September period of the current fiscal, a slump from Rs 1,62,352 crore mobilised in the same period of 2012-13.

The report attributed slump in funds mop-up to less capital raised by the financial institutions and banks.

In debt private placements, firms issue debt securities or bonds to institutional investors to raise capital.

In the entire 2012-13, Indian companies had raked in a staggering Rs 3.5 lakh crore, the highest in 12 years.

As per Prime Database, financial Institutions and banks mobilised Rs 58,744 crore in the six months ended September 30, 2013, a plunge of 31 percent from the year-ago period.

Funds garnered by private sector firms also declined 14 percent to Rs 51,271 crore.

"Mobilisation by State Financial Institutions also went down by 39 percent to Rs 1,251 crore, mobilisation by PSUs was also lesser by 12 percent at Rs 9,692 crore and mobilisation by State Level Undertakings saw a major fall by 75 percent to Rs 1,133 crore," the report said.

Sector-wise, financial services segment continued to dominate the market, collectively raising Rs 84,879 crore or 69 percent of the total amount; power ranked second with a 10 percent share (Rs 12,025 crore).

The highest mobilisation through debt private placements during the period was by Power Finance Corp (Rs 12,158 crore), followed by LIC Housing Finance(Rs 9,822 crore), HDFC (Rs 9,610 crore), Rural Electrification Corp (Rs 8,150 crore) and Power Grid (Rs 7,092 crore).