Despite the share market adversely reacting to India conducting the surgical strikes along the Line of Control, India Inc on Thursday rallied behind the Army’s move and said it was time to act tough and ruled out any negative impact on the country’s economy and trade.
“Our civil n decent response in the past hasn’t been met with reciprocity so it’s time to act tough,”(sic) Biocon CMD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw tweeted.
Recalling an earlier tweet in which he had said “I trust our army. They know how to pursue & retaliate” in the wake of the Uri attack, industrialist Anand Mahindra said: “I don’t need to add anything more today…”
PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Mahesh Gupta said volatility in the financial markets will be short lived.
“The Indian economy has a strong bandwidth to deal with any possible after effects of the current state of tensions with Pakistan,” Assocham Secretary General DS Rawat said.
The chamber said that while reaction in the stock market to the news of India’s surgical strikes was understandable, there is no cause of concern for the country’s economy which has the capabilities to withstand any extra costs to be borne for the sake of our national security.
Exporters’ body FIEO Director General & CEO Ajay Sahai, too, ruled out any negative impact on India’s trade with other countries.
However, asked about the implications on India-Pakistan bilateral trade, Sahai said India’s move to review the most favoured nation (MFN) status accorded to its neighbour has raised some uncertainty for exporters on whether trade will normalise in the future.
Reacting to the reports of surgical strikes, the Sensex plummeted 465.28 points to end at 27,827.53; whereas the Nifty nosedived 153.90 points to 8,591.25.
The Indian rupee also tumbled to its lowest level in the last one week after the army announced the strikes.
The Indian currency, which opened at 66.44 to a US dollar, had already depreciated in the initial hours of the day’s trade in line with the weakness in Asian currencies.
The sharp fall occurred around 1.00 p.m. when the rupee depreciated to 66.95 to a US dollar. This level was last seen on September 22. However, the Indian currency bounced back marginally to 66.85 to a greenback before speculative selling dragged it lower to 66.90 at 4.10 p.m.
India carried out ‘surgical strikes’ on terror launch pads across the Line of Control(LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday night, inflicting “significant casualties” on terrorists and those who are trying to support them.
(With PTI inputs)
