The Indian rupee regained as much as 20 paise against the US dollar on Friday after kissing 65/$ mark in yesterday’s session making a new 3-month low. The rupee added 20 paise to a day’s high of 64.84 apiece US dollar at the interbank foreign exchange market on Friday. The domestic currency had been under immense pressure in the current week led by several factors including a downturn in liquidity from domestic equities following the concerns over massive banking scandal at India’s second-largest PSU lender Punjab National Bank; rising crude oil prices; bounce back of US dollar against a basket of currencies from 3-year lows and FPIs (foreign portfolio investors) pulling out money from Indian stock markets. The rupee opened about 9 paise higher at 64.96 vs the US dollar on Friday.
The Reserve Bank of India had fixed a reference rate of 65.0458 against the US dollar on Thursday. Earlier yesterday, the rupee crossed the 65-mark dropping as much as 32 paise intraday to hit a new three-month low of 65.09 against the US dollar. The dollar edged up against the yen and other currencies on Friday, trimming earlier losses, as global investors gingerly dipped their toes back into riskier assets amid rapidly shifting views on U.S. monetary policy, Reuters said in a report. The US dollar rose 0.1% to a level of 106.850 against Japanese yen. The US dollar had shed nearly 1% overnight following a downturn in US Treasury yields which fell from their four-year tops. While on the other hand, crude oil went past $62 per barrel mark with WTI crude trading 0.05% down at 62.74 while Brent crude traded 0.08% lower at $66.34 per barrel.
Meanwhile today, India’s stock markets opened slightly higher with Sensex gaining as much as 156 points and Nifty hitting a day’s high at 10,427.55 led by the uptick in the shares of Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Yes Bank, State Bank of India and Bharti Airtel. BSE Sensex surged as much as 156.29 points to a day’s high of 33,975.79 and NSE Nifty advanced 44.85 points to mark the day’s top at 10,427.55 on Friday. A market-wide buying was seen on the counters as all the sectoral and broader market indices of National Stock Exchange hovered in green in the morning deals with Nifty Midcap 50, Nifty Metal, Nifty Pharma and Nifty PSU Bank leading the charge.
Source: financialexpress.com