Sensex falls 240 points; rupee ends at 9-wk low, Ranbaxy tanks

The 30-share BSE Sensex snapped four-day winning streak, falling 240 points on Friday weighed down by broadbased selling. Traders preferred profit booking after the index saw record closing high of 21373.66 in previous session. Weakness in global peers and fall in rupee to nine-week low too caused selling pressure. The Sensex slipped 240.10 points or 1.12 percent to 21,133.56 while the Nifty closed way below the 6300 level, down 78.90 points or 1.24 percent to 6,266.75.

The broader markets fell the most compared to benchmarks; the BSE Midcap Index plunged 1.7 percent and Smallcap dropped 1.8 percent. Two shares declined for every share advancing on the BSE. The major sell-off was seen in interest rate sensitive stocks especially ahead of RBI's third quarter review of monetary policy next week. Market experts believe the RBI will maintain status-quo on January 28, thanks to easing December WPI inflation to five-month low and CPI inflation to three-month low.

Tirthankar Patnaik, EVP - Institutional Sales at Religare Capital Markets expects a pause in monetary policy and does not see any comfort from the central bank in terms of rate actions right now. According to him, RBI governor's latest remark on inflation and the Urjit Patel Committee report may also be the main reason for this weakness in the market. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said the inflation was a "destructive disease" that was forcing the bank to keep interest rates high, reports PTI. Urjit Patel committee in its report on January 21 said inflation should be the nominal anchor as far as the policy framework is concerned and new CPI should be the anchor for the policy.

While reacting to the above report, rating agency CRISIL on January 22 said, ''Interest rates are unlikely to come down in 2014-15 if the RBI accepts the recommendations of Urjit Patel Committee.'' BSE Realty, Capital Goods, Bank, Metal, Auto, Power, Healthcare and FMCG indices were down between 1-3 percent. Shares of Ranbaxy Labs plunged 19 percent after US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) banned its Punjab-based Toansa Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) plant. The health regulator has found major current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) violation in Toansa inspection. Tata Motors , ICICI Bank , L&T, State Bank of India, Tata Steel , Sesa Sterlite and BHEL were top losers, falling 2-3 percent. However, Reliance Industries , NTPC and Bajaj Auto outperformed with marginal gains. Meanwhile, the rupee shed 73 paise to nine-week low of 62.66 a dollar compared to closing value of previous session, tracking weakness in other emerging currencies. Among Asian peers, Japan's Nikkei closed 2 percent lower as the yen strengthened against the US dollar.

03:45 pm Market closing: After hitting record high at closing consecutively, the market ended weak on profit booking and weak Asian cues. Banking, capital goods, metals and realty stocks fell the most. BHEL , Tata Motors , Tata Steel , Sesa Sterlite and L&T are major losers in the Sensex.

03:35 pm Fiscal deficit: Encouraged by the response to the Service tax amnesty scheme, the Finance Ministry today exuded confidence in meeting the fiscal deficit target of 4.8 percent for the current financial year. "We will come out with the Revised Estimates. We are working towards our revenue targets. And we are very confident of meeting the fiscal deficit target," Finance Secretary Sumit Bose told. The fiscal deficit was 4.9 per cent of GDP in 2012-13. Bose said Rs 7,700 crore worth declaration has come under the service tax amnesty scheme.

03:25 pm International result: Samsung posted its first decline in quarterly profit in two years, hit by one-off special bonus as well as slowing smartphone sales as it braces for a year of tougher competition with rival Apple. The world's biggest smartphone maker kept its full-year investment plan conservative and warned it would be difficult to increase earnings in the first quarter as demand pulls back from the year-end holiday period. October-December operating profit fell 6 percent on year to 8.3 trillion won, in line with a previous estimate of 8.3 trillion won, Samsung said in a statement on Friday. The figure was brought down by an 800 billion won special employee bonus to commemorate 20 years since Chairman Lee Kun-hee announced a management strategy that the company regards as the catalyst to its recent growth. It said a stronger won also hit profit, knocking off around 700 billion won.

03:15 pm Good news: The Finance Ministry is likely to make an announcement of a new pension scheme for Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) subscribers, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting government sources. The proposal, which has been floated by the Labour Ministry, talks about giving a minimum of Rs 1000 per month as pension to the subscribers of the Employees' Pension Scheme-1995 (EPS-95) Scheme. Sources say the Finance Ministry has given its go-ahead to this scheme and most likely announcements regarding this is likely to be made during the Vote-on-Account speech by the Finance Minister. Details regarding this scheme will also be elaborated upon by the Finance Minister in his speech.

03:05pm Ranbaxy in bear grip Shares of Ranbaxy tanked nearly 20 percent as it got another blow by US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). The drug regulator has banned Ranbaxy's Punjab-based Toansa Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) plant. Toansa is the fourth unit of the company which is banned and added to consent decree. With this, all of the company's India-based plants supplying to US are banned. Its Ohm Laboratories, the only plant which has USFDA approval, manufactures drugs using API from Toansa. US FDA has found major current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) violation in Toansa inspection. It was inspected on January 11, 2014. After the ban, the company cannot sell drugs manufactured in Toansa unit in the US and cannot export API for any purpose. Ranbaxy also will not be able to provide API from Toansa to other companies' making products for US.

02:55pm Bajaj Electricals talks to CNBC-TV18 Bajaj Electricals is hopeful of seeing a turnaround in their engineering & projects (E&P) business segment in FY15 after completion of all their earlier projects said joint MD Ananth Purandhare in an interview to CNBC-TV18. For the last many years the company has posted losses from that segment. The company is confident of clocking a 22 percent revenue growth for FY14 and similar growth in FY15 too Bajaj Electricals is Indian consumer electrical equipments manufacturing company based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of the Bajaj Group.

02:45pm Market Expert Tirthankar Patnaik, EVP - Institutional Sales at Religare Capital Markets says RBI governor's latest remark on inflation and the Urjit Patel Committee report are likely to be the main reason for this weakness in the market.  Patnaik expects a pause in RBI's monetary policy on January 28 and does not see any comfort from the central bank in terms of rate actions right now. He recommends staying away from financials right now not in the short run but from a portfolio perspective.

02:35pm Equity benchmarks extended losses in last hour of trade, losing over a percent weighed down by further fall in metals, capital goods and banks stocks. The Sensex dropped 230.06 points to 21,143.60, and the Nifty fell 76.30 points to 6,269.35. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices declined over 1.5 percent as declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by a ratio of 1719 to 793 on the BSE. Shares of Tata Steel and Sesa Sterlite topped the selling list, falling 3.5 percent each followed by Tata Motors and BHEL with a 3 percent loss. Country's largest lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank plunged 2 percent each followed by ITC , HDFC , Sun Pharma , ONGC and Maruti Suzuki with more than a percent loss. However, Reliance Industries and TCS outperformed, gaining over 0.5 percent.

2:00 pm Poll: Glenmark Pharma will declare its third quarter (October-December) earnings today. According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect profit after tax of the company to fall 14 percent year-on-year to Rs 184 crore. The growth in numbers is expected to moderate on yearly basis because it comes on a high base. In a year ago period (Q3FY13), the company had reported licensing income of Rs 49.3 crore that boosted earnings. Revenues jumped 34 percent to Rs 1,382 crore and EBITDA grew 211 percent to Rs 320 crore. Revenues are seen going up 13.2 percent to Rs 1,565 crore in the quarter ended December 2013 from Rs 1,382 crore in a year ago period. Operating profit or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation may grow 5.6 percent to Rs 338 crore and operating profit margin may drop 160 basis points to 21.6 percent compared to same quarter last year.

1:50 pm Market outlook: The Indian market is positively poised right now and there is no need to worry about global weakness. That's the word coming in from Ajay Srivastava of Dimensions Consulting. Srivastava feels the Indian market remains well-balanced with low volatility and sees a pre-election rally in the offing. The next government will solve growth issues, he says. ''We were always a buyer in the market,'' he told CNBC-TV18's Latha Ventakesh and Sonia Shenoy in an interview. His advice to investors right now is to buy midcap stocks. He has a buy on YES Bank, Amara Raja Batteries and Fortis Healthcare . ''We think Fortis could touch Rs 150-180 a share in the next 24 months,'' he says.

1:40 pm Poll: Emerging Asian economies will contribute less to global growth in 2014 than earlier expected even as their major trading partners in the West show signs of recovery, a Reuters poll showed on Friday. From China to India, Indonesia, Taiwan and Thailand, over 225 economists polled between January 16-23 have collectively downgraded or left unchanged growth estimates for nine of the top 13 economies in Asia outside Japan. India is expected to grow at a lacklustre pace of 5.4 percent in fiscal year 2014-2015, as a result of the weak investment cycle gripping the country, which goes to elections this year.

1:30 pm Result: Pune-based realty company Kolte-Patil Developers disappointed street with the third quarter consolidated net profit falling 33 percent year-on-year to Rs 20.4 crore on lower revenues. Consolidated net sales dropped 16.5 percent to Rs 186 crore in the quarter ended December 2013 from Rs 222.8 crore in a year ago period. Total expenses of the real estate developer declined 19.5 percent to Rs 132 crore compared to a year ago period, driven by fall in cost of construction (cost of land and materials consumed).

The Sensex is down 148.32 points at 21225.34, and the Nifty is down 53.65 points at 6292.00. About 782 shares have advanced, 1665 shares declined, and 195 shares are unchanged. Technology stocks are holding up with Wipro and TCS among the lead gainers in the Sensex. Other gainers are Reliance , Hindalco and NTPC . Ranbaxy tanks on USFDA blow. The US FDA bans Ranbaxy's Toansa API plant and added it to consent decree. Asian shares lurched to a 4-1/2 month low, extending the previous day's weakness as disappointing Chinese manufacturing data raised concerns over the economy, and emerging and commodity currencies took a beating. Investors sought safety in gold, the yen and highly-rated government bonds, sending the 10-year US Treasury yield to a seven-week low. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.8 percent, adding to the previous session's 1.3 percent decline following the Chinese factory activity report. As the yen strengthened against the dollar, Japan's Nikkei stumbled 1.9 percent to a one-month closing low in relatively active, extending Thursday's 0.8 percent drop.

12:54pm Edelweiss and UPL deliver earnings Edelweiss Financial Services' third quarter consolidated net profit grew 25.4 percent sequentially to Rs 57.8 crore and total income rose 10.7 percent to Rs 641.4 crore compared to previous quarter. The stock gained 0.5 percent. UPL met analysts' expectations with the third quarter net profit rising 28 percent year-on-year to Rs 222 crore and total income increasing 15.4 percent to Rs 2647 crore. The stock declined 1.7 percent.

12:44pm Glenmark to declare Q3 results According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect profit after tax of the company to fall 14 percent year-on-year to Rs 184 crore. The growth in numbers is expected to moderate on yearly basis because it comes on a high base. In a year ago period (Q3FY13), the company had reported licensing income of Rs 49.3 crore that boosted earnings. Revenues jumped 34 percent to Rs 1,382 crore and EBITDA grew 211 percent to Rs 320 crore. Revenues are seen going up 13.2 percent to Rs 1,565 crore in the quarter ended December 2013 from Rs 1,382 crore in a year ago period. Operating profit or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation may grow 5.6 percent to Rs 338 crore and operating profit margin may drop 160 basis points to 21.6 percent compared to same quarter last year.

12:34pm Market Expert The Indian market is positively poised right now and there is no need to worry about global weakness. That's the word coming in from Ajay Srivastava of Dimensions Consulting. Srivastava feels the Indian market remains well-balanced with low volatility and sees a pre-election rally in the offing. The next government will solve growth issues, he says. ''We were always a buyer in the market,'' he told CNBC-TV18's Latha Ventakesh and Sonia Shenoy in an interview.

12:24pm Asian shares under pressure Asian shares lurched to a 4-1/2 month low, extending the previous day's weakness as disappointing Chinese manufacturing data raised concerns over the economy, and emerging and commodity currencies took a beating. Investors sought safety in gold, the yen and highly-rated government bonds, sending the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield to a seven-week low. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.8 percent, adding to the previous session's 1.3 percent decline following the Chinese factory activity report. As the yen strengthened against the dollar, Japan's Nikkei stumbled 1.9 percent to a one-month closing low in relatively active, extending Thursday's 0.8 percent drop, reports Reuters.

12:04pm The market remains under pressure with a percent fall in noon trade weighed down by banks, metals, FMCG and capital goods stocks. However, TCS and Wipro outperformed, rising 1 percent each. The Sensex dropped 187.27 points to 21,186.39, and the Nifty lost 61.75 points to 6,283.90. More than two shares declined for every share advancing on the BSE. Tata Motors , Sesa Sterlite and Tata Steel are the biggest losers, shedding 3 percent each followed by Larsen and Toubro , and BHEL with a 2.5 percenet loss. Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank plunged 2 percent and its rival State Bank of India and HDFC Bank declined 1 percent each. Cigarette major ITC , state-run oil & gas company ONGC and telecom operator Bharti Airtel slipped over a percent. Ranbaxy Labs , which is the most active, remains in bear grip, losing 19 percent after the the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has banned company's Punjab-based Toansa Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) plant. ITC, Asian Paints , M&M, Axis Bank , HDFC, State Bank of India and Larsen and Toubro are most active shares.

11:50 am Stock view: Deven Choksey, MD at KR Choksey Shares & Securities advises to avoid Ranbaxy Laboratories . "I think better opportunities are available within the pharmaceutical space, so concentrate on that. We have been maintaining our view point that it is an avoid for Ranbaxy for some time and unfortunate incidence of import alert, which has come up today is again validating that view point, so we would stay away from Ranbaxy," he adds.

11:40 am Poll: Glenmark Pharma will declare its third quarter (October-December) earnings today. According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect profit after tax of the company to fall 14 percent year-on-year to Rs 184 crore. The growth in numbers is expected to moderate on yearly basis because it comes on a high base. In a year ago period (Q3FY13), the company had reported licensing income of Rs 49.3 crore that boosted earnings. Revenues jumped 34 percent to Rs 1,382 crore and EBITDA grew 211 percent to Rs 320 crore. Revenues are seen going up 13.2 percent to Rs 1,565 crore in the quarter ended December 2013 from Rs 1,382 crore in a year ago period.

11:30 am FII view: Chris Wood of CLSA says the best hope of a new investment cycle in India is dependent on a decisive victory by Narendra Modi in the 2014 general elections. But with the Indian stock market having rallied last quarter on a Modi 'bid', it would be no surprise to see the market pull back this quarter. "Greed & Fear's advice is to refocus on Indian politics at the start of next quarter with the general election campaign likely to commence in April," he adds. Michael Hartnett of Bank of America Merrill Lynch feels investors are waiting for better entry levels in EM. We need to see 3-4 weeks of flow capitulation out of EM equities to trigger EM Flow Trading Rule 'buy' signal. This week's outflow was USD 2.4 bn. Investors are playing global cyclicals ex-EM/commodities.

The market is sliding further with weakness in bank, metals, infra and realty stocks. The Sensex is down 219.89 points at 21153.77, and the Nifty loses 71.45 points at 6274.20. Sesa Sterlite, BHEL , Tata Motors , Tata Steel and HDFC Bank are top losers in the Sensex while only IT stocks like TCS and Wipro are major gainers in the Sensex. About 676 shares have advanced, 1398 shares declined, and 164 shares are unchanged. Rupee is at an over two-week low against the dollar taking cue from the weakness that we saw in other emerging market currencies.   Government bond prices fell on the rupee weakness and statements from the RBI Governor where he said inflation is a destructive disease and the central bank cannot afford to push it under the carpet. Prices were also under pressure as market sentiment remained negative after the Urjit Patel report. Currencies are in focus as emerging market currencies crashed overnight. This was led by the Argentinean peso that fell more than 20 percent after an impromptu devaluation. The Turkish lira fell to a record low because of political instability. The South Korean won fell 0.4 percent this morning against the dollar and the Hong Kong dollar traded at seven-month low.

10:59am Ashok Leyland slips 2% post Nomura downgrade Nomura downgraded Ashok Leyland to reduce from neutral rating and reduced target price from Rs 16 to Rs 13 citing commercial vehicle recovery is unlikely in FY15 expected. "We expect flat volumes for medium and heavy commercial vehicles in FY15 expected, even on a very low base; and even this forecast builds in some improvement from December-13 SAAR. We are also concerned that rising competition in the sector may limit Ashok Leyland's EBITDA margins to lower than in past cycles. Thus, we build in 4.5 percent/7.7 percent EBITDA margins for FY15 forecast/FY16 forecast. In comparison, consensus appears too bullish as it is building in 20 percent/13 percent revenue growth for FY15/FY16F and 7.4 percent/8.3 percent margins. Downgrade to reduce; target price cut to Rs 13," Nomura report said.

10:49am Experts on Ranbaxy post USFDA ban In a big blow to Indian drug maker Ranbaxy, the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) banned the company's Punjab-based Toansa Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) plant. The US drug regulator added this plant to ongoing consent decree. With this, Toansa is the fourth unit of the company that will be banned and added to consent decree. All of the pharma company's India-based plants supplying to the US are banned. Experts believe this ban to be a huge negative for Ranbaxy and expect the company to report negative EBITDA. Surajit Pal, pharma analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher explains that the only two big contributors to the company's profits are India and US. He believes 8-10 percent of the core business margin will easily slip into the negative zone because the rest of the business territory for the company is either negative or breakeven or marginally negative. Also, Ranbaxy's Toansa plant supplies 70 percent of US-based Ohm Laboratories' Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) requirement. Ranbaxy's Ohm Laboratories, which is based in New Jersey, is the only plant that has USFDA approval. This in effect means the company will soon have to go in for outsourcing, incurring huge costs.  Chirag Talati, pharma analyst at Espirito Santo Securities adds with outsourcing vendors coming into the picture, Ranbaxy will have to give up a big slug of its profit. Talati and Pal advise investors to stay away from the stock in near term.

10:39am Market Update The 50-share NSE Nifty broke the 6300 level, falling 47 points to 6,298.65 while the 30-share BSE Sensex lost 136.93 points to 21,236.73. About 674 shares have advanced, 1164 shares declined, and 149 shares are unchanged. BHEL, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank and Sesa Sterlite declined 1.5-2.6 percent. Reliance Power, ITC, Ranbaxy Labs, Asian Paints, M&M, Axis Bank, TCS, Aurobindo Pharma and Infosys are most active shares.

10:29am RBS survey says Rajan to hold policy rates The market expects Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan to hold interest rates at its policy review meeting on Tuesday, a survey has found. In addition, the market does not expect a rate reduction even in March, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said. RBS, citing its 19th survey on quarterly monetary policy review, said it took the views of 150 local market participants, including corporate clients, banks, insurance companies and mutual funds , among others. More than 80 percent of the respondents expect Rajan to leave both the repo rate as well as cash reserve ratio unchanged. However, about 19 percent expect a 25 bps increase in the repo rate on January 28, the survey showed. Optimism against a rate increase stems from headline inflation, which came in at a surprisingly low 6.12 percent in December, while retail inflation eased to 9.52 percent, reports PTI.

10:19am FII View Chris Wood of CLSA said the best hope of a new investment cycle in India is a decisive victory by Narendra Modi in the 2014 general elections. "But with the Indian stock market having rallied last quarter on a Modi 'bid', it would be no surprise to see the market pull back this quarter. Greed & Fear's advice is to refocus on Indian politics at the start of next quarter with the general election campaign likely to commence in April," he added.

10:09am The market sees selling pressure on account of profit booking, tracking weak global cues. The Sensex slipped 83.01 points to 21,290.65, and the Nifty dropped 30.25 points to 6,315.40. Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by a ratio of 937 to 582 on the BSE. Twins - Housing finance company HDFC and private sector lender HDFC Bank declined more than a percent while its rival ICICI Bank lost 0.9 percent. Engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro slipped over a percent on profit taking as it had rallied 3 percent in previous session post Q3 earnings. BHEL plunged 2.5 percent. Ranbaxy Labs crashed more than 16 percent post US FDA banned company's Punjab-based Toansa Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) plant on current current good manufacturing practice violations. However, TCS and Wipro gained 1 percent each. Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy's Labs are other gainers.

9:50 am Davos special: India is looking to create as many as 100 million skilled jobs in the manufacturing sector by raising its share of GDP to 25 percent from 16 percent, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said. Sharma is here for the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meet where he would also have interactions with top executives of large companies from across the world. "India aims to raise manufacturing (sector's) share of GDP from 16 per cent to 25 percent and create 100 million skilled jobs. This is a must do," Sharma said while addressing an WEF session on manufacturing.

9:40 am Survey: The market expects Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan to hold interest rates at its policy review meeting on Tuesday, a survey has found. In addition, the market does not expect a rate reduction even in March, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said. RBS, citing its 19th survey on quarterly monetary policy review, said it took the views of 150 local market participants, including corporate clients, banks, insurance companies and mutual funds , among others. More than 80 percent of the respondents expect Rajan to leave both the repo rate as well as cash reserve ratio unchanged.

9:30 am Results: Cairn India , the subsidiary of London-listed Vedanta Resources, reported 14.8 percent sequential degrowth in third quarter net profit, impacted by forex loss and higher expenses (employee cost and exploration cost written off). Profit after tax declined, higher-than-expected, to Rs 2,884.04 crore in the quarter ended December 2013 from Rs 3,385 crore in previous quarter. Analysts on an average had expected net profit for the quarter at Rs 3,080 crore on revenues of Rs 5,000 crore. Revenues climbed 7.5 percent (in-line) quarter-on-quarter to a record level of Rs 5,000 crore in the quarter gone by, driven by increased volumes.

The market opened lower on Friday on profit booking and weak Asian cues, weighed down by financials, metals and FMCG stocks. The Sensex declined 85.82 points to 21,287.84, and the Nifty fell 26.05 points to 6,319.60. About 340 shares have advanced, 439 shares declined, and 105 shares are unchanged. Ranbaxy Labs stock is trading at its September lows, falling 19 percent as the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has banned company's Punjab-based Toansa Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) plant.

The US drug regulator added this plant to ongoing consent decree. With this, Toansa is the fourth unit of the company that will be banned and added to consent decree. Now all of the company's India-based plants supplying to US are banned. The Indian rupee weakened by 20 paise to 62.12 against the dollar in early trade. Yesterday the rupee closed at 61.92. The yen holds firm in early trade, having charged higher overnight as worries about a slowdown in China and turmoil in some emerging markets spurred demand for the safe-haven currencies. Pramit Brahmbhatt of Alpari India said that, "Rupee is again threatening to trade above 62 levels after consolidating around 61 levels. Positive developments in US markets will give the Fed more reasons to do another round of tapering making the dollar strong globally." "This coupled with strong month-end dollar demand by OMC and uncertain RBI action on January 28 will push rupee to trade weak today. However, dollar selling by banks above 62 levels might help.

The range for the day is seen between 61.60-62.40/dollar," he added. In the US, stocks declined sharply, with the Dow extending losses into a third straight session, after measures of US and Chinese manufacturing disappointed and the Wall Street considered quarterly reports from companies including McDonald's and Netflix. After falling as much as 232 points during the session, the Dow Jones industrial average ended down 176 points. On the economic data front - jobless claims in the US remained unchanged from last week's 326,000 level which is lower than consensus estimate of 330,000, while the December existing home sales came in 1 percent higher at 4.87 million.

Asian markets opened weak. Hang Seng shed 0.56 percent and Nikkei tumbled 1.44 percent. In commodities, crude prices rose marginally with Nymex narrowing its discount to European Brent to the lowest level for two months, after a sizable draw in distillates drove the heating fuel price to its highest so far this year. From precious metals space, gold was trading close to its highest in seven weeks on Friday and poised to record its fifth straight weekly gain. Gold has risen 0.6 percent so far this week.