Securing Narrow Escape, Rupee Marginally Gains To 72.97 Against Dollar

Rupee Vs Dollar Today: Rupee clawed back from initial losses and settled marginally higher against dollar

Rupee Vs Dollar Today: Securing a narrow escape from losses, the rupee stepped back from initial losses and gained marginally towards the fag-end of the session by two paise against the US dollar to close at 72.97 on Friday, January 22. Amid weaker domestic equities, the rupee was supported by easing crude oil prices. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened lower and traded in the negative territory for the most part of the session, amid a massive selloff in domestic equities. In an early trade session, the rupee edged lower by four paise to 73.03 against the greenback. It registered an intraday high of 72.96 and a low of 73.09 throughout the session. 

Barely marking its fourth straight session of gains, the rupee finally settled two paise higher at 72.97 against the dollar. On Thursday, January 21, the domestic unit had settled at 72.99 against the American currency, almost touching a five-month high. The local unit registered a steady session throughout the week. Over the last four consecutive sessions, the rupee strengthened by 31 paise against the greenback. 

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, inched up 0.05 per cent to 90.17. “The currency market is trading in a very tight range, and there is no volatility to keep it on an edge. Next week is FOMC policy and Fed will keep the easy monetary policy, keeping dollar subdued. The optimism over growth is still high but if there are delays in vaccine rollout then the immediate impact will be some upside in spot. RBI is keeping the spot near 73 zone, if that breaks the spot will fall to 72.75, while 73.50 will continue to be the resistance,” said Mr. Rahul Gupta, Head of Research- Currency, Emkay Global Financial Services.

On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex declined 746.22 points or 1.50 per cent to end at 48,878.54, while the NSE Nifty shed 218.45 points or 1.5 per cent to 14,371.90. ”Indian benchmark equity indices ended lower for the second straight day on Jan 22, correcting further after making a record high on Thursday. This was the biggest single-day drop for the benchmarks in a month. Friday’s correction marked the end of an 11-week gaining streak for the frontline indices, which was the longest since 2009,” said Mr. Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

”The Nifty seems to have begun the pre-Budget correction. Though the week on week loss is just 0.43 per cent, the sentiments are dented severely going by the sharply adverse advance decline ratio. 14049-14098 is the support band for the Nifty,” he added.

According to exchange data, the foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,614.66 crore on January 21. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, dropped 1.99 per cent to $ 55.05 per barrel.