In early trade, rupee surged by 15 paise to 73.48 against the greenback
A day after registering losses, the rupee surged five paise against the US dollar on Wednesday, December 16, at 73.58 (provisional) with strong domestic equities and sustained foreign fund inflows encouraging investor sentiment. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 73.49 against the dollar and registered an intra-day high of 73.48. It witnessed a low of 73.60. In an early trade session, the rupee surged by as much as 15 paise to 73.48 against the greenback. The domestic unit finally closed at 73.58 against the dollar, recording a gain of five paise over its previous close. On Tuesday, December 15, the rupee edged lower by eight paise to 73.63 against the dollar.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading by 0.35 per cent lower at 90.15. According to traders, the weakness of the American currency in the overseas market also supported the domestic unit. “The US dollar continued to struggle near the 2-year lows as risk appetite improved supported by vaccine roll-out expansion and hopes of passage of a massive US stimulus aid this week,” said Reliance Securities in a research note.
“In our view, the global optimism over rolling out of coronavirus vaccine and the hopes of another US fiscal stimulus package may push USDINR spot towards 73.25. Also, RBI is not very aggressive with its intervention. So, a consistent trading below 73.25 will push price towards 73 zone, while 74 will act as a strong resistance,” said Rahul Gupta, Head of Research- Currency, Emkay Global Financial Services.
According to exchange data, the foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 2,484.09 crore on a net basis on December 15. On the domestic equity market front, BSE Sensex ended 403.29 points or 0.87 per cent higher at 46,666.46, while the NSE Nifty climbed 114.85 points or 0.85 per cent to 13,682.70.
“Finally, the market broke the upward trading range and reached the level of 13692. HDFC Twin shares and technology giants supported the rally. However, despite the market breaking the upward barrier, other heavyweight stocks clearly failed to participate. This type of creation needs to be handled with care when trading in the market. On Thursday, the market should trade within the levels of 13750 and 13550,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research at Kotak Securities.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, surged 0.26 per cent to $ 50.89 per barrel.