Market Watch

Sensex down 77 points; sinks for 4th straight week;Forex reserves down $1.19 billion to $ 367 billion

18 November 2016 - 07:26 PM

Indian shares ended lower on Friday, after fluctuating earlier in the session, as overall sentiment remained dented after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen signalled an interest rate hike was imminent, while investors back home were worried about the government's move to remove high-value notes.
 
 
Financials and consumer staples led the declines, with ICICI Bank closing down 1.1 percent, State Bank of India dipped 0.6 percent, while cigarette maker ITC dropped 1.58 percent and Colgate-Palmolive India declined 1 percent.
 
The Nifty closed down 0.07 percent at 8,074.10, while the Sensex ended down 0.30 percent at 26,150.24. Both the indexes posted their fourth straight weekly losses.
 
India's foreign exchange reserves declined by USD 1.190 billion to USD 367.041 billion in the week to November 11 on account of fall in foreign currency assets, Reserve Bank said today. 
 
In the previous week, the reserves had increased by USD 1.074 billion to USD 368.231 billion. They had touched life- time high of USD 371.99 billion in the week to September 30, this year. 
 
Foreign currency assets (FCAs), a major component of the overall reserves, dipped by USD 1.155 billion to USD 342.772 billion. FCAs, expressed in US dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation/depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, pound and the yen held in the reserves. 
 
Gold reserves remained steady at USD 20.460 billion, the apex bank said.