The rupee finished the week with a loss of 109 paise, or 1.5 per cent, against the dollar
- The rupee opened lower at 71.80 against the dollar on Friday, and fell by as much as 36 paise to hit an intraday low of 72.04, before gaining some ground by the end of the session.
- The dollar gained as investors turned nervous about an economic slowdown in China and was further supported by weakness in the euro and pound.
- “This was the second consecutive weekly fall for the rupee on the back of year-end dollar outflow. The US dollar index has surpassed the crucial resistance of 97 and has been sustaining above it,” said VK Sharma, Head PCG and capital markets strategy, HDFC Securities. The dollar index measures the greenback against six major peers.
- Analysts expect the rupee to trade around 71-72 levels against the dollar going forward.
- "With the positivity around the announcements from the new governor and the favourable inflation data, we expect the rupee to continue to trade between 71.20 and 72 against the dollar,” said Salil Datar, ED and chief executive officer, Essel Finance.
- The Reserve Bank of India's board deliberated on the central bank's governance framework and decided that the matter required further examination.
- Domestic equity markets registered mild gains at the end of a choppy session. While FMCG, information technology and public sector banking stocks pushed the key indices higher, losses in finance and pharma spaces offset limited the upside.
- Crude oil prices dipped around 0.7 per cent, with international benchmark Brent trading around $61 a barrel.
- Wholesale inflation in November eased to the lowest level since August. Measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), the rate of increase in wholesale prices stood at 4.64 per cent last month, as against 5.28 per cent in October, government data showed.
- Meanwhile, separate data released post-market hours showed trade deficit narrowed to $16.67 billion in November from $17.13 billion in the previous month. Gold imports fell 15.6 per cent to $2.76 billion in November, the data showed.
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
