The rupee was initially a loser, but it was able to recover some of the early losses and end almost flat at 83.50 (provisional) to the US dollar on Thursday. However, a monopoly in crude oil prices was a great threat to the rupee in the INR vs USD rate, which remained elastic to the pressure. Apparently, forex traders pointed out that factors like domestic equities hitting an all-time high, enhancement in overseas transactions and flow of substantial amounts of foreign funds to the Indian market helped the rupee to somewhat ease its free fall against the US dollar.
Thus, at the interbank foreign exchange market, the Indian rupee commenced opening at 83.52 against the US dollar. In the course of the session, it oscillated, touching its intraday high of 83.48 and a low of 83.56 in the INR vs USD rate. It finally ended at index 83.50 (provisional) against the dollar, down by 1 paisa from the earlier price level. On the previous trading day, Wednesday, the Rupee was also trading lower by 1 paisa and settled at 83.49 against the US dollar.
On the other hand, the dollar index, which tracks the unfolding of the American currency relative to a basket of six mostly developed nations’ currencies, was floating at 0.15 percentage points lower on average and at 105.24. Brent crude futures, the global oil marker in the international commodities market were trading 0.47 per cent lower at USD 86.93 per barrel.
Developments that occurred in the domestic equity market were quite monumental. The BSE Sensex touched a historic high of 80,000 levels, while the Nifty 50 also scaled a new high and registered a record level for the first time in its history. The Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark 30-stock Sensex index closed higher at 62.87 points, or 0.08 percent, which is a record high with a total of 80,049.67 points. The broader NSE Nifty settled 15.65 points higher or 0.06 percent, hitting a record high of 24,302.15 points.
Also, the FDI investments went on display and Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) remained bullish on Indian capital markets. Wednesday, they were net purchasers who bought the stocks for Rs 5,483.63 crore based on the exchange data available for the stated period. In addition to that, there is about $15 billion inflow of foreign funds, which helped a lot in stabilising the rupee and maintaining the positive trend.
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