Rupee opens at 48.74, a fresh 2-year low against $

The Indian rupee fell by 41 paise to an over two-year low of Rs 48.74 against the US dollar in early trade on the Interbank Foreign Exchange today after the American currency strengthened against other major rivals overseas.

Dealers said apart from dollar gains against major rivals overseas, weakness in the domestic equity market and sustained dollar demand from importers also put pressure on the Indian rupee.

Ssharad D Pawaar, SPFX INDIA said that, "The rupee is expected to be weak on the back of the dollar's gains globally. The slumping equity markets may put further pressure on the currency. The range for the day is seen between 48.30-48.55/USD."

Yesterday, the rupee fell by 28 paise to close at a fresh two-year low of 48.33/34 against the US currency on strong dollar demand from importers and some banks.

MARKET BLEEDS AGAIN : Sensex falls over 300 pts

The sell-off across sectors has pushed the equity benchmarks further down. The 50-share NSE Niftyplunged 100 points to 5,033 and the 30-share BSESensex lost 328 points to 16,737.

Federal Reserve flagged "significant downside risks" to the economy on the last day of FOMC meeting yesterday. Also, Moody's Investors Service cut debt ratings on financial companies like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citi.

Asian markets were witnessing heavy sell-off. Hang Seng crashed 4%. Kospi and Taiwan lost 3% each. Nikkei slipped 2%. Shanghai and Straits Times were down 1.7% each.

Sharp fall in European futures too were pointing weak start to the European opening; France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were down 2-4%.

On the home turf, the BSE Realty, Metal, Auto, Bank and Capital Goods indices fell 2-2.6%. Power, IT, Oil & Gas and FMCG indices dropped 1-1.6%.

Heavyweights Reliance Industries, Bharti, TCS, SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and L&T plunged 2-3%. However, BPCL bucked the trend; gained 1.5% on fall in crude oil prices. Nymex Crude was trading around USD 84 a barrel.

Market breadth too worsened; about five shares declined for every share gaining.

India interested in Iran oil pipeline

India is interested in the Iranian gas pipeline and issues like price and safety are being worked out.
"In principle in the long run, we need a pipeline and the issues need to be addressed. The issues are being addressed," official sources said today.
India considers Iran a major partner in the West Asian region and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be meeting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of the UNGA during this week to discuss bilateral issues.
The sources said Iran is a major partner of India on several issues in West Asia where Tehran is a matter of stability.
India has a bilateral trade of USD 12 billion with Iran and 64 of India's oil requirements worth USD 90 billion is sourced to the region.
Also, there are 6 million Indians in West Asia, the sources point out.
They said: "We are interested in the pipeline. There are basic issues. One is pricing and the other is safety."
The pipeline cost USD 6 billion and there are downstream projects that will work out to USD 30 billion. As a buyer, one would like some concession, the sources said.
The sources refused to read any meaning in the absence of any bilateral meeting for the Prime Minister with western leaders, especially US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the UNGA.
They said Singh would be having a number of occasions for such meetings when they come for upcoming meetings like the G20 and other summits.

What was Chidambaram's role in 2G Scam

The Supreme Court has been hearing a plea by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy seeking that a CBI probe on P Chidambaram's role as the then finance minster when 2G licenses were granted in January 2008. Today, as Swamy submitted factsheet on 2G at the Supreme Court, CNBC-TV18's economic policy editor, Siddharth Zarabi shares exclusive details of the same.
One of these documents is a letter dated back to March 25, 2011, which is almost over a month after A Raja was arrested and had to step down from the DoT.
The key contention of this 11 page factsheet which has been submitted by the finance ministry to the Prime Minister office written by Doctor PGS Rao, a deputy director in the finance ministry and addressed to Vini Mahajan, joint secretary in the Prime Minister�s office at that stage, dealing with matters including telecom department.
There are several key contentions � the finance ministry stuck to its guns and continued with the correspondence that it had initiated before the grant of licenses on January 10 2008 then the entry fee, the key point of contention that Rs 1651 crore was too low, 2001 prices should have been revised, that would have been sort of done in favour as the finance ministry wanted.
This note claims to have been seen, approved, and sent with the approval of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. On March 25, 2011, Pranab Mukherjee was already the finance minister for well over two years, which is the key point that is being sort of noticed in this 11 page fact sheet. The finance ministry under Mukherjee has infact submitted a factsheet of this kind to the Prime Ministers office which directly or indirectly in some words without sort of being very explicit but at some place being quite clear, seeks to pin the blame of the 2008 incidence on the then finance ministry.
Therefore in some way it ropes in then Finance Secretary and current RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao. It takes into account Additional Secretary of the DA at that time Sindhushree Khullar and a whole host of other officials who were involved in the correspondence with the Department of Telecom. So, at this stage this fresh piece of evidence as has been submitted in court, the court hasn't pronounced its orders yet, the expectation is that arguments will continue.
A new twist has been delivered and Swamy is trying to bring on record the fact that the finance ministry, after Chidambaram had moved to the home ministry, has sought to blame the role on Chidambaram's ministry-ship at north block. Hence, it is the big political message that people are drawing at this stage from the fresh new evidence provided by Swamy.

Wockhardt gets a week to work out settlement

Bombay High Court today granted an additional one week's time to the debt-ridden Wockhardt to arrive at a workable solution to handle the litigations from
its foreign debtors, but also asked the company to delink this repayment from its recent asset sale to French foods major Danone.
The drug-maker had been rapped by the High Court earlier and asked to pay Rs 350 crore it owes to its foreign creditors without delay.
At the hearing today, the HC criticised Wockhardt on its debt and directed it to delink the repayment to its foreign currency convertible bond (FCCB) holders from its asset sale to Danone.
The court has fixed the next hearing on September 29. A group of bondholders led by the bond trustee of the Bank of New York Mellon, Sun Pharma Global and hedge fund QVT besides some creditors had taken Wockhardt to court, filing a wind-up petition, after the company defaulted on repayment of
its USD 110-million FCCBs, in 2009.
In the course of the proceedings, Wockhardt had been restrained from selling assets without approval from the HC. Early last month, Wockhardt signed a Rs 1,600-crore deal with Danone to sell its nutrition business to the French
multinational. The High Court is yet to approve the deal.
Today, Wockhardt sought some extra time to seek the proposal or solution for repayment that would fit all the parties- CDR as well as the bond holders.