Rupee Falls For 3rd Straight Session, Crosses 73-Mark Against Dollar, Closes Lower At At 73.06

Registering losses for the third straight session, the rupee declined by nine paise against the US dollar on Thursday, June 10, to settle at 73.06 even as domestic equities registered significant gains. The local unit today breached the 73-mark against the American currency. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the domestic unit opened at 72.96 against the dollar amid its previous close of 72.97, and swung in the range of 72.94 to 73.12 during the day. The domestic unit has lost 26 paise in the last three trading sessions.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.09 per cent to 90.20. According to forex traders, the local unit traded in a narrow range as investors looked to key US inflation data and European Central Bank meeting later in the day for further cues.

”Not much of a change in levels of currencies since yesterday. USDINR flat while GBPUSD has fallen and so has Euro a bit. Today’s inflation reading important but probably market has agreed to FED view that inflation is on a short term momentum and accordingly US 10 year yields are below 1.50 per cent,” said Mr Anil Kumar Bhansali, Finrex Treasury Advisors

”The implied volatility in the USDINR pair is at a multi-month low, which is an indication that the pair which has been trading in a very narrow range for the last few days and it is due for a breakout…Rising crude prices, higher fiscal deficit on account of a hike in MSP, lower growth, and higher inflation and RBI active downside side indicate probability that the pair will break on the upper side,” said Mr Amit Pabari, MD, CR Forex.

”So far, the rupee has been backed up only due to inflows on account of various IPO’s, stake sales, and bond issues. However, the activeness of the RBI along with importer’s rush to cover dollar shall keep the rupee under pressure. Overall, for USDINR pair 73.25-73.30 remains a crucial resistance to determine the way forward for the rupee,” added Mr Pabari.

On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 358.83 points or 0.69 per cent higher at 52,300.47, while the broader NSE Nifty gained 102.40 points or 0.65 per cent to 15,737.75.

“The market has formed an “inside body” candlestick formation on the daily chart that acts as a bullish continuation formation, especially if the market breadth is exceptionally strong. Compared to each of the negative closing of the stock in the market today, the closing of three stocks were positive and all sectors closed in positive territory. This is a completely opposite image of the previous day. Today, the market closed at 15738/52300 which is above the previous day’s average level,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research at Kotak Securities.

According to exchange data, the foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on June 9 as they offloaded shares worth Rs 846.37 crore. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.07 per cent to $ 72.27 per barrel.