Profit Top 10: Rupee breaches 57-mark to dollar; Tata Motors wins Singur land case

• Rupee breaches 57-mark; hits all-time low of 57.33/$
• Sensex, Nifty close off day's low, discount record rupee fall
• Moody's downgrades world's 15 biggest banks: Latest developments
• Tata Motors wins Singur land case in Kolkata High Court
• Pranab Mukherjee to step down as finance minister on June 26: report
• Sweden’s Ikea to invest Rs 10,500 cr to set up 25 stores in India
• What Euro zone trouble means for India
• Why petrol prices won’t come down despite weak crude
• Hiring activities decline nearly 30% across all sectors in 2012
• Google's Larry Page loses voice, skips annual shareholders' meet

1) Rupee breaches 57-mark; hits all-time low of 57.33/$

The Indian rupee plunged against the US dollar on Friday to cross the 57-mark, after risk assets were hit by heightened concerns about the world economy. Broad gains in the dollar versus major currencies on the back of global risk aversion and weakness in domestic shares weighed on the rupee. Dollar buying from oil firms and gold importers added to the downward pressure, traders said. Here is a quick guide to the effect of the rupee’s fluctuations. (Read More)

Also Read: RBI governor D Subbarao on why rupee is falling 

While there was no significant intervention from RBI, it has written to oil marketing firms to buy 50 per cent of their dollar needs from SBI in a bid to control the currency's free fall against dollar. (Read More)

2) Sensex, Nifty close off day's low, discount record rupee fall

Indian equity markets slumped sharply in intra-day trade on Friday tracking a sharp fall in the rupee.  BSE Sensex fell about 200 points at around 12 p.m., but recovered to end at 16,836 off the day’s low. (Read More)

Asian shares too fell on Friday and the safe-haven dollar hovered near its highest in a week-and-a-half after weak manufacturing data from the United States, Europe and China heightened fears over the outlook for global growth. The Dow fell over 250 points too on Thursday. While oil rebounded from 8-month lows on Friday, gold headed for its biggest weekly loss since December.

Also Read: Why is Andrew Holland bullish on Indian markets

3) Moody's downgrades world's 15 biggest banks: Latest developments

Ratings agency Moody's downgraded 15 of the world's biggest banks on Thursday, lowering credit ratings by one to three notches to reflect the risk they face from volatile capital markets activities, including biggies like Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. Here are latest developments. (Read More)

4) Tata Motors wins Singur land case in Kolkata High Court

In a major win for Tata Motors, the Kolkata High Court on Friday ruled that the Singular Land Rehabilitation and Development Act 2011 was constitutionally invalid. A division bench held the Act void as the President's assent had not been taken. (Read More)

Also Read: Tata Motors shares jump after court rules against Singur Act

5) Pranab Mukherjee to step down as finance minister on June 26: report

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will step down on June 26, rather than the previously expected June 24, as he prepares to stand in July's presidential election, a senior member of the ruling Congress Party told Reuters said late on Thursday.

Mukherjee, who has held the post since 2009, is leaving at a time when Asia's third-largest economy is taking a battering by a slowing pace of economic growth, policy gridlock in government, inflation, and sluggish investment. (Read More)

Also Read: Rio+20 Summit: PM hits out at developed nations over emissions

6) Sweden’s Ikea to invest Rs 10,500 cr to set up 25 stores in India

Sweden-based furniture retailer IKEA has approached the finance ministry with a proposal to invest Rs 10,500 crore for setting up of 25 stores in single-brand retail in the country. The IKEA group, which sells office and home furniture, proposes to invest €1.5 billion (Rs 10,500 crore) through a 100 per cent subsidiary in single-brand retail trading in India, sources said. (Read More)

Also Read: Airtel to invest $25 mn on networks in Malawi

7) What Euro zone trouble means for India

While experts, corporate honchos and ratings agencies have consistently blamed internal factors such as fiscal deficit, current account deficit and lack of movement on key reforms for India’s poor state of economic affairs and low growth, external factors such as the crisis in Europe are also to blame to some extent. Here are the potential impacts of five alternate economic scenarios in the euro zone on India’s growth in 2012-13, according to rating agency Crisil. (Read More)

Meanwhile, Franklin Templeton’s Mark Mobius on Friday said that though a lot has been happening in the euro zone, things are not as negative as they seem, and Euro did have a chance of reviving. (Read More)

Also Read: RBI's D Subbarao on difference between 2012 and 1991 crisis

8) Why petrol prices won’t come down despite weak crude

Petrol prices should have been cut by Rs 2.20-2.30 a litre as global rates have fallen to an 18-month low, but oil companies will not reduce prices as they watch the volatile rupee that is making imports costlier. Rupee depreciating to an all-time low of Rs 57.33 to a US dollar has wiped away most of gains arising from oil dropping below $90 a barrel for the first time since December 2010. (Read More)

9) Hiring activities decline nearly 30% across all sectors in 2012

As the global economy continues to remain on tenterhooks and India battles an uncertain macro climate, hiring seems to be sharply slowing down in India Inc with several sectors even doling out pink slips. While Infosys has delayed bringing on board nearly 28, 000 engineers hired from campuses to as late as July 2013, HSBC, Barclays and Nomura have laid off over 1000 employees in the last one year. (Read More)

10) Google's Larry Page loses voice, skips annual shareholders' meet

Google Chief Executive Larry Page sat out his company's annual shareholders' meeting on Thursday due to an unspecified condition affecting his voice that will sideline him from speaking engagements for several weeks. (Read More)

Meanwhile, Google's shareholders gave their support Thursday to the company's plan to issue a new class of stock. Here is further explanation of the plan.

Also Read: Facebook agrees to more control for users in ad service to settle case