Rupee Gains To 72.87 Against Dollar Even As Domestic Markets Restricted Gains

Rupee Vs Dollar: The rupee gained 10 paise against the US dollar on Tuesday, February 9, to settle at 72.87 (provisional) amid sustained foreign fund inflows and weaker American currency. However, surging crude prices as well as subdued domestic equity market affected the rupee sentiment and restricted the gain. At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened sharply higher at 72.87 against the dollar. During the session, the local unit touched an intra day high of 72.85 and a low of 72.92. It settled at 72.87, registering a rise of 10 paise against the greenback. In the previous session, the rupee had slipped 4 paise to settle at 72.97 against the American currency.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, declined 0.42 per cent to 90.57. "Indian rupee gained strength amid weakness in Dollar and rise in risk appetite in the global markets. Market sentiments improved on the expectation that stimulus packages, easy monetary policies and progress in vaccination programme would boost economic growth. Further, consistent FII inflows supported Rupee. However, the sharp upside was prevented on a surge in crude oil prices. Rupee may trade in the range of 72.65 to 73.30 in next couple of sessions," said Saif Mukadam, Research Analyst, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.

On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 19.69 points or 0.04 per cent lower at 51,329.08, while the broader NSE Nifty slipped 6.50 points or 0.04 per cent to 15,109.30.

“Today, again the market has managed to establish a new record high of 15257/51835, but due to profit booking it corrected sharply in the last hour of trade. Among sectors, profit booking was seen in Media, Auto and Pharma stocks whereas, witnessed buying in insurance, paints stocks. We are of the view that the market is overstretch and last hour selling pressure indicating strong possibility of quick intraday correction from current levels. Technically, the index has formed Hammer kind of candlestick pattern which clearly indicates indecisiveness between bulls and bears,'' said Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research at Kotak Securities.

According to exchange data, the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,876.60 crore on February 8. Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.50 per cent higher at $ 60.86 per barrel.