Rupee resumes slide, Sensex climbs for 2nd day

Mumbai: Resuming its slide after a day's pause, the rupee declined 19 paise to close at 79.13 against the US dollar on Thursday as a firm greenback overseas and unabated foreign capital outflows outweighed the impact of RBI's measures to support the domestic currency.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 79.05 and shuttled between a high of 78.90 and a low of 79.26.

It finally settled at 79.13, down 19 paise over its previous close of 78.94.

The rupee had jumped 39 paise on Wednesday -- its best single-day gain in over three months -- after the RBI raised overseas borrowing limits for companies and liberalised norms for foreign investments in government bonds as it announced a slew of measures to boost foreign exchange inflows and curb the fall of the rupee, which has slumped to record lows against the US dollar in the past few sessions.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading flat at 107.07.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, advanced 0.81 per cent to USD 101.51 per barrel.

Market benchmarks darted up for the second straight session on Thursday, propped up by robust buying in consumption, metal and bank stocks amid a bullish trend overseas.

However, a depreciating rupee and foreign fund outflows capped the gains, traders said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 427.49 points or 0.80 per cent to close at 54,178.46. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 143.10 points or 0.89 per cent to 16,132.90. Titan was the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack, spurting 5.69 per cent, after the Tata group firm reported a three-fold jump in sales for the April-June quarter.

Tata Steel, Larsen & Toubro, IndusInd Bank, M&M, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and HDFC Bank were the other major gainers, rising up to 4.88 per cent.

In contrast, Dr Reddy's, Nestle India, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance, HUL and Bajaj Finserv were among the laggards, shedding as much as 1.26 per cent.

The market breadth was positive, with 21 of the 30 Sensex stocks closing in the green. In the broader market, the BSE smallcap gauge jumped 1.30 per cent and midcap index went higher by 1.19 per cent.