Rupee and Syrian worries spook markets

Indian equities had a nightmarish session today. Sensex lost over 650 points to close at 18235 and Nifty was down 209 points closing the day at 5341. The markets after a three days of bounce back and just when most of the market participants were of the opinion that, for now the worst is over markets had other plans. 

Our markets were hit by a barrage of bad news. When we started the day Syrian fears had resurfaced. Through the day the food bill got passed at Rajya Sabha and markets got worried on higher CAD. By the time the day was getting to a close S&P had warned of a down grade and that broke the markets' back. Amidst all this mayhem, Rupee was also losing ground consistently through the day and ended sharply lower at 67.63 weakening over 3% in the session. 

The fall in the markets was led by heavy weights with Reliance and ITC losing over 6%. Banks across the board resumed the down trend with HDFC and ICICI bank losing over 5% each. Consumption story related stocks like Asian Paints also had a forgettable day. 

The US markets ave opened in the green and were trading substantially higher. Microsoft's Nokia buy dominated all the news desks. European indexes were trading flat with a negative bias. 

It is now left to be seen where the indian markets go from here. After a three days of relief the markets have resumed their downward trend. 

-----Harish Sridharan