Rupee Vs Dollar Today: The rupee settled at 73.38 against the dollar
The rupee depreciated by 87 paise against the US dollar on Tuesday, March 30, to settle at 73.38 (provisional) amid rising crude oil prices. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the domestic unit opened at 72.85 against the dollar and traded in the range of 72.77-73.47 during the session. In an early trade session, the local unit slipped 34 paise to 72.85 against the greenback. The rupee finally ended at 73.38 against the American currency, registering a fall of 87 paise over its previous closing. On Friday, March 26, the local unit settled at 72.51 against the dollar.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, climbed 0.20 per cent to 93.12. On Monday, March 29, the forex market was closed on account of Holi. ”The broad USD strength has hit almost all EMFX, albeit INR looks to be hit the most (as confluence of internal factors exaggerated the INR extreme move),” said Madhavi Arora, Lead Economist, Emkay Global Financial Services.
”Just as INR’s artificial relative uptick in mid-march was transient, we think the sharp relative depreciation is more a reflection of reversal of those transient factors than anything structural at play. In all likelihood, INR will start following suit of its EM peers by early April,” she added.
On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 1,128.08 points or 2.30 per cent higher at 50,136.58, while the broader NSE Nifty gained 337.80 points or 2.33 per cent to 14,845.10.
”The Nifty-50 has again gone above the 50 DMA led by gains in high quality stocks. Except for today’s depreciation the INR has remained quite steady even though the Dollar Index rose. Also when the US 10 Year bond yields has spiked sharply India’s 10 Year Bond Yield has remained quite stable. These two factors could act in India’s favour and help Indian equities outperform its peers in the emerging markets,” said Rusmik Oza, Executive Vice President, Head of Fundamental Research at Kotak Securities.
According to exchange data, the foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 50.13 crore on March 26. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.69 per cent down at $ 64.53 per barrel.