Rupee breaches 60-mark again

Mumbai: Continuing its downslide for the third day, rupee on Wednesday plunged by 55 paise to close at 60.21 due to fresh capital outflows

and sustained dollar demand from importers

Weak economic data from China, rising political worries in Portugal, and further weakness in the Indian rupee pulled the markets down for the second consecutive day.

The Sensex fell 286.06 points or 1.47 per cent to end the trading session at 19,177.76 while the Nifty slumped 86.65 points or 1.48 per cent to end the day at 5,770. The latest RBI directive asking banks to increase the provisioning against their currency exposure saw bank shares sliding sharply on Wednesday.

Meanwhile the rupee weakened sharply against the dollar and slipped below its psychological 60 level to end the day at 60.22 to the dollar as compared to its previous close of 59.66. The rupee hit a low of 60.44 level in the intra-day trade. “Troubles in Europe further fuelled the selling pressure in the Indian market,” said Sanjeev Zarbade of the Kotak Securities.

The prices of international Brent crude oil, which rose to $105 per barrel, also had a negative impact on the market sentiment. Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth `705.06 crore on Wednesday, the provisional data from the stock exchanges showed.