The Indian rupee has been on a rising streak since after the first phase of Gujarat elections had concluded on 9 December 2017. The rupee has added as much as 57 paise in a 2-week period against the US dollar. The Indian rupee gained as much as 11 paise against the United States dollar in the opening trade on Thursday. In a period of two weeks from Thursday, 7 December 2017, the Indian rupee has appreciated heavily on the back of optimism on Narendra Modi led BJP winning in assembly elections of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Since then, the rupee has zoomed as much as 57 paise to trade at 64 against the US dollar. The domestic currency jumped 11 paise at 64 apiece US dollar today at the interbank foreign exchange market. On Wednesday, the rupee ended marginally down, losing 7 paise at 64.11 against the US dollar due to dollar demand from importers. The appreciation in value of rupee is on the back of weakness in US dollar against a basket of currencies as the US Congress gave its final seal of approval to a sweeping tax legislation. IT is termed as the biggest overhaul of the US tax code in 30 years. The Bill slashes tax rates for corporates as well as the middle class.
Earlier on Tuesday, the rupee edged up by 20 paise to close at a three-month high of 64.04 against the US dollar following the victory of Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party in the state elections of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. However, on Monday, the rupee underwent a choppy trade and slipped by a whopping 70 paise as both Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party moved neck to neck as the counting progressed. But later in the day, when BJP vote count surpassed that of Congress, the rupee ended the day down by 20 paise only.
India’s stock market opened higher on Thursday with the key benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty inching towards their respective record highs. Sensex was trading up at 33,789.33 while Nifty was trading at 10,448.25, each up by 0.04%. BSE Sensex 48.87 points to open at 33,826.25 and NSE Nifty started 29.75 points higher at 10,473.95. Shares of Hero MotoCorp, Sun Pharma, L&T, HDFC, Adani Ports, Dr Reddy’s gained in the early trades. Indian stock markets have emerged as one of the best performers in the year 2017 with Sensex and Nifty returning about 28% and with few days left in the year, domestic equities are likely to finish 2017 on a high note.
In a major development on Monday, Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party won the assembly election in the states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. The Congress was not able to defeat the incumbent BJP in Gujarat but it has certainly managed to bring down the ruling party seats to double digits in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.
Source: financialexpress.com