Syria shocks Dalal Street

Tensions over Syria hit the Indian markets badly with the Sensex nosediving over 651 points and rupee ending 163 paise down at 67.63 against dollar as investors were already spooked by rating downgrade fears.
Hit hard by panic selling, the Sensex had slumped as much as 720 points, while the rupee dropped to as low as 68.27 on hefty capital outflows. With the markets in doldrums, gold once again surfaced as a safe haven for investors. The precious metal surged Rs 1,610 to Rs 34,370 in Kolkata, Rs 970 in Mumbai, Rs 440 in Delhi and Rs 350 in Chennai.
The mayhem in stocks and rupee was also triggered by a spate of poor economic data , including falling growth of eight infrastructure industries in July and contraction in an indicator of manufacturing sector activity in August.
Goldman Sachs today also cut India's growth forecast for this fiscal to 4 per cent from 6 per cent earlier and said it expects the rupee to touch 72 against the dollar in the next six months. This follows similar bearish calls by JP Morgan, HSBC Global Research and Nomura recently.