Fresh Middle East jitters and a Standard & Poor war-ning about a one-in-three chance of a downgrade of India’s rating led to panic selling in both currency and equity markets on Tuesday. The rupee fell by over three per cent in intra-day trade, slipping below its psychological 68-level mark against the US dollar. But aggressive intervention by the RBI prevented a much steeper fall, and it closed at 67.63 to the dollar.
The Sensex snapped its four-day winning streak, slumping 651.47 points (3.45 per cent) to close at 18,234.66, while the Nifty plunged 209.30 points to close at 5,341.45.