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Politics Business Expressions General Sports Leisure States 16 January 1998   Free fall of rupee continues The rupee continued its downward slide against the dollar and touched a new low of 40.35 before the Reserve Bank of India along with the State Bank of India (SBI) stepped in to pump in around $ 100 million to arrest the fall of the Indian currency. The rupee opened at 40.15/18 - at the same closing level of Wednesday's - but weakened as corporate demand for dollars went up.   Pvt internet players free to fix tariffs The government yesterday announced a three-tier licence agreement and eligibility criteria for private internet service providers (ISPs) and also allowed them freedom to fix tariff subject to the TRAI's directions. The TRAI would be free to intervene to review or fix a tariff which would then be binding on all licencees. Telco launches small car After months of suspense, Telco yesterday had a high-profile launch of the car that looks best-positioned to take on Maruti Udyog in even its 800cc market. The 1400cc car, likely to be priced around Rs 2.5 lakh is completely Indian, save the design, which is credited to IDEA of Italy. The car is likely to be named Mint, short for mini from Telco. Sensex sheds 35 points Pivotals reacted further on the Bombay Stock Exchange yesterday on selling pressure by the FIIs mainly due to the continuing economic turmoil in South-east and the Far East. The Sensex lost 35 points. After a weak spell, a few scrips rallied at the end on short covering coupled with buying by the domestic financial institutions. The volume of business remained moderate.   Tepid response to FI demat trading The first day of compulsory demat trading by institutions in the eight scrips shortlisted by SEBI saw lacklustre trading in the segment, with volumes on the National Stock Exchange remaining thin. The demat segment on the Bombay Stock Exchange remained dormant. Of the eight stocks in which institutions are required to settle their trades in the demat segment, only three stocks namely Reliance, SBI and ICICI, were traded yesterday. Hong Kong stocks tumble again Hong Kong stocks tumbled to a sharply lower close on January 15 triggered by a slide of shares of the Sino Land group and worries about an increase in bad debts following a steep fall in housing prices. The blue chip Hang Seng index finished down 647.57 points, or 7.02%, to 8,578.98 after touching a low of 8,471.68 earlier.     Bizbits   ED gets closer to export scam   Suharto, IMF sign $ 43 bn deal   Sail, Altos downgraded   WFIL, Whirlpool merge   DSJ bid to sell assets   Yarn prices shoot up   Sebi rejects Inox open offer for GF shares   Castrol scrip up on bonus rumours