New Delhi: The rupee on Tuesday opened nearly 15 paise down at 75.16 against the US dollar due to some buying in American currency by banks and importers amid rising concerns over a continuous surge in Covid-19 cases in the country.
The local currency on Monday settled 20 paise down at 75.01 against the greenback.
Rupee came under pressure in the previous session after consolidating in a narrow range for the past few sessions following weakness in domestic equities and rebound in the dollar against its major crosses.
This week, market participants will be keeping an eye on the RBI policy meeting. There are hopes that the central bank could keep rates unchanged but commentary will be important to watch to determine trend for the currency.
RBI continued to intervene at lower levels and that is reflecting in forex (FX) reserves number which has risen to fresh record levels.
Latest data released by RBI showed FX reserves climbed by $5 billion to fresh levels of $522.63 billion.
“For the day, we expect USDINR (Spot) to quote in the range of 74.80 and 75.30,” brokerage Motilal Oswal Financial Services said in a report.
Dollar rose marginally against its major crosses after remaining under pressure in the past few weeks after manufacturing PMI in the US rose to 54.2 in July compared to 52.6 in the previous month.
This week, focus primarily will be on the employment numbers that will be released from the US. An uptick in the number could extend gains for the greenback.
On the other hand, pound is consolidating ahead of the important Bank of England policy statement that will be released later this week.
Source:- economictimes.indiatimes.com