Rupee Edges Lower By Eight Paise To Close At 73.63 Against Dollar

The rupee edged lower by eight paise against the US dollar on Tuesday, December 15, to settle at 73.63 (provisional),  tracking muted domestic equities. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 73.62 against the dollar and registered an intra-day high of 73.59. It witnessed a low of 73.67. In an early trade session, the local unit depreciated by eight paise to 73.63 against the dollar. The domestic unit finally closed at 73.63 against the greenback, registering a decline of eight paise over its previous close. On Monday, December 14, the rupee moved higher by nine paise to settle at 73.55 against the dollar.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading at 0.06 per cent lower at 90.65. According to exchange data, the foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 2,264.38 crore on a net basis on December 14.

"The rupee depreciated marginally against the dollar this Tuesday tracking weakness in most regional currencies as risk appetite waned as many countries are imposing fresh COVID-19 restrictions which could derail a global economic recovery," said Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities.

On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended at 9.71 points or 0.02 per cent higher at 46,263.17, while the  NSE Nifty rose 9.70 points or 0.07 per cent to 13,567.85. 'Nifty has formed a pattern on daily charts similar to that on Monday with 13590-13598 being a crucial resistance. As it has closed only 30 points away from this band it has a good chance to make a new high in the coming few days. High intraday volatility and flat close means that markets are due for a sharp move shortly in either direction,' said Mr. Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

'Volumes on the NSE were in line with recent averages. Among sectors, all of them ended in the negative except Media, Auto & Metal indices. PSU Banks and FMCG indices fell the most,' he added.

“For the fourth consecutive sessions the Nifty 50 index has bounced back from its intra-day low to end flat. Although the global markets were weak, our markets managed to bounce back quickly. The market is moving in a range of 13400 and 13600 levels. More importantly it has become highly stock specific. Today too, we saw activity in stocks that have failed to perform in the last 5 to 10 trading sessions. Based on the above observation we can conclude that the market is exhibiting stock-specific corrections,' said Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research at Kotak Securities.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.12 per cent to $ 50.35 per barrel.