The Indian rupee gained as much as 26 paise in the early morning trades against the US dollar on Monday on the back of positive cues from the domestic markets hitting fresh record highs. The rupee added 26 paise to 63.38 apiece US dollar at the interbank foreign exchange market on Monday. The domestic currency opened strong at 63.45 against the previous close of 63.63 per dollar as stock markets soared to record levels after strong economic data. The Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate of the rupee at 63.5263 against the US dollar on Friday. Earlier on Friday last week, the rupee surrendered most of its early strong gains but eventually managed to end higher by a modest 3 paise at 63.63 against the US dollar. The rupee lost 26 paise against the US dollar in the last week.
Two macroeconomic data on Friday gave mixed signals for the economy as the factory output (IIP) surprised everyone with a massive jump to a 25-month high of 8.4% in November as compared to 2.2% in October, while the Consumer Price Index, however, accelerated to a 17-month-high of 5.21% in December from November’s 4.88%, in sink with the worries expressed by the Reserve Bank of India. The industrial output grew 8.4% in November from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday.
Meanwhile, India’s stock markets started on a positive note on Monday with Sensex and Nifty hitting all-new record highs on the back of third-quarter earnings optimism and positive global cues led by a continuous upsurge in American stock markets. BSE Sensex zoomed 94.82 or 0.27% to began at a record opening high 34,687.21 while NSE Nifty added 37.25 or 0.35% to open at 10,718.5 for the first time ever. Within wee minutes of the opening trades, the benchmark Sensex surged as much as 209.35 points to hit an all-time high of 34,801.74 whereas the wider share indicator Nifty rose 52.15 points to mark the record high of 10,733.4. Following the optimism over better-than-expected Q3 earnings, foreign investors have pumped in over Rs 5,200 crore in the Indian capital markets this January so far. Going ahead this week, Indian stock markets are likely to be steered by the third-quarter earnings of blue-chip companies like HDFC Bank, ITC, Wipro, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, Bharti Airtel and WPI inflation.
Source: financialexpress.com