News digest: IL&FS board meeting, bruised stock mkt, rupee rescue and more Noor Arora
Macro headwinds continue to roil markets as rupee plunges to new low India’s stock markets saw a fresh round of sell-offs on Wednesday after Brent crude prices climbed to a four-year high of $85 a barrel and the rupee dropped to a new low of 73.34 against the dollar. Investors pulled out of equity markets on worries that the spike in oil prices and fall in the rupee would adversely impact the economy. Investor sentiment has already been fragile following defaults by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), a lender to the infrastructure sector. Read more As rupee breaches 73 level, RBI allows OMCs to raise dollar from abroad The Reserve Bank of Indiaon Wednesday allowed oil-marketing companies to raise dollars directly from overseas markets without a need for hedging. In a post-market notification, the RBI said the minimum maturity profile of the borrowings should be three years and five years, and the overall cap under the scheme would be $10 billion. The central bank relaxed criteria for this. Read more