The rupee witnessed a loss of 17 paise over its previous close.
The rupee depreciated 17 paise against the US dollar closing at 74.05 (provisional) on Friday, November 27, ending its five-day winning streak. The rupee was influenced by subdued responses amid weak domestic equities. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the domestic unit opened at 73.80 against the greenback and registered an intra-day high of 73.76. It recorded a low of 74.07. In the opening session today, the local unit rose 11 paise to 73.77 against the dollar amid sustained foreign fund inflows. The rupee witnessed a loss of 17 paise over its previous close. On Thursday, November 26, the domestic unit appreciated three paise to close at 73.88 against the greenback.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was down by 0.04 per cent to 91.95. According to traders, market participants were cautious ahead of the release of the September quarter GDP numbers. “The July-September quarter GDP data is due to be released today post market hours. After a 23 per cent year-on-year contraction in the first quarter, the economy is likely to have contracted 8 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter,” said Abhishek Goenka, Founder and CEO, IFA Global.
“Rupee traded muted by afternoon trade on Friday tracking the dollar index muted trades. Thanksgiving holiday days keep dollar prices in a range moves,” said Jateen Trivedi, Senior Research Analyst (Commodity & Currency) at LKP Securities.
According to exchange data, the foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 2,027.31 crore on a net basis on November 26. On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex closed at 110.02 points or 0.25 per cent lower at 44,149.72, while the NSE Nifty dropped by 18.05 points or 0.14 per cent to 12,968.95. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.65 per cent to USD 48.11 per barrel.
“The BSE-30 Index gained 0.7 per cent in the past week. The market remained buoyant on expectations of sharp earnings recovery led by earlier-than-expected deployment of COVID-19 vaccines and easy monetary policies. Advice for investors will be to buy quality stocks on declines,” said Sanjeev Zarbade, VP PCG Research, Kotak Securities.