A salesperson holds Indian rupee banknotes at jewellery store in Mumbai. The currency weakened 0.6%, the most since October 13, to 65.3050 a dollar yesterday.

Bloomberg/Mumbai

India’s benchmark stock index slid to a two- month low, led by industrials and metal companies, as the monthly derivative contracts expired and the US Federal Reserve signalled it’s prepared to raise interest rates in December.
Bharat Heavy Electricals, the largest power-equipment producer, tumbled the most in almost two months, while Coal India, the world’s biggest miner of the fuel, capped its biggest four-day loss in a month. Axis Bank and State Bank of India paced losses among lenders. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, India’s third-biggest drugmaker by market value, climbed for the first time in three days before its results, while NTPC slid for a third day even as the biggest power generator posted results that beat forecasts.
The S&P BSE Sensex slid 0.8% to 26,838.14 at the close in Mumbai in a fourth day of drop, the longest stretch of losses since August. The gauge has climbed 2.6% in October, on course for its best month since May, as overseas funds returned to emerging markets amid signals the Fed will delay raising borrowing costs until 2016. Those gains may evaporate if the inflows reverse after the US central bank closes an unprecedented era of near-zero rates in December and Indian company earnings take longer to recover.
“Looks like a December rate hike by the US Fed is pretty much on the cards,” Vaibhav Sanghavi, managing director at Ambit Investment Advisors Pvt in Mumbai, said by phone. “Earnings have been a mixed bag so far, some good, some not so good.”
 Results Scorecard
 While 69% of the Sensex companies that have posted September-quarter results have matched or beaten estimates, versus with the 60% in the June quarter, earnings for the gauge are set to drop for a second quarter, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Bharat Heavy tumbled 4.3%, the worst performer on the Sensex, while Coal India extended a three-day, 3.4% retreat. Axis Bank lost 2.9%, extending Wednesday’s 7.5% loss. State Bank capped its biggest four-day loss since September.
Dr Reddy’s said after market hours its second quarter rose 26% to Rs7.22bn, beating the Rs6.37bn estimated by analysts. The shares surged 2.6%.
NTPC’s second-quarter profit jumped 40% to Rs29bn ($445mn) from a year ago, beating the Rs20.2bn median of 19 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. The stock dropped 1.2%, extending the two-day, 2.6% decline.
Meanwhile futures traders extended 74% of the October contracts at expiry, data as of 5:38 p.m. show. That’s higher than the six-month average of 66%. The India VIX index, the benchmark gauge of equity-option prices, jumped 3.2% to 17.6, taking this week’s advance to 8.6%.
Global funds sold $82.5mn of local stocks on Wednesday, ending 12 straight days of inflows which was the longest stretch since the period through March 9.
The Sensex has fallen 2.4% this year and trades at 15.6 times projected 12-month earnings. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is valued at a multiple of 11.2.
Meanwhile, the rupee weakened 0.6%, the most since October 13, to 65.3050 a dollar in Mumbai, prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg show. It slipped to 65.3175 earlier, the lowest since October 7. The currency has climbed 0.4% this month, following a 1.4% rally in September.