Rupee Slips Marginally To 72.87 Against Dollar After Flat Opening

After opening flat in early trade session. the rupee slipped three paise lower against the US dollar on Thursday, February 11, to close at 72.87 (provisional) following a firm trend in the domestic equity markets. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the domestic unit opened at 72.81 against the dollar and registered an intra-day high of 72.65. It witnessed a low of 72.87. In the early trade session, the domestic unit opened on a flat note, rising three paise to 72.81 against the greenback. It settled at 72.87 against the American currency, registering a fall of three paise over its previous close. On Wednesday, February 10, the local unit settled at 72.84 against the dollar.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.02 per cent to 90.38. ''USDINR in the same range of 72.75/73.00 and all others are selling while RBI is buying. Yesterday in futures is closed around 72.80 but RBI is just not allowing the downside to be breached and on upticks there are large number of sellers so it is not able to breach 73.00 levels,'' said  said Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head- Treasury, Finrex Treasury Advisors. 

''Best is to receive the premium and sit tight on the position else daily carry goes. Importers to just hedge their very near term and exporters to keep selling the upticks which is rare these days,'' he added. On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 222.13 points or 0.43 per cent higher at 51,531.52, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 66.80 points or 0.44 per cent to 15,173.30. '

“The Nifty/Sensex closed at the highest point of the day on the weekly closing of the index options. Index giant Reliance Industries has pulled the market sentiment otherwise the market participants were more interested in small-cap stocks throughout the day. Today, the Nifty Small-Cap Index surged and more than 60 per cent of the stock closed in the positive territory,'' said Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research at Kotak Securities

''Based on the market closing, we can conclude that the market is consolidating and would remain volatile between the 15200/51700 and 15000/51100 levels until the market closes at the 15200/51700 level,'' he added.

According to exchange data, the foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,786.97 crore on February 10. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.70 per cent to $ 61.04 per barrel.