“This has been liquidity-driven and not a valuation-based rally,” said Mayuresh Joshi, fund manager, Angel Broking adding, “eventually there will be catch up happening.”
Be that as it may, Joshi said the correction is unlikely to be very sharp as there will be buyers at lower levels. He said for the Nifty to take out 9,000 decisively banks, autos and IT as a pack need to fire on all cylinders. “Investors can stay invested with a long-term perspective and keep investing in a staggered manner,” he told BloombergQuint in a phone conversation.
Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel said the rupee is ‘broadly’ where it should be. Problem is, a central bank gauge of the currency’s trade-weighted performance shows it is overvalued.
Adding to the confusion is the government’s earlier claim that indexes managed by the RBI and the International Monetary Fund have overstated rupee gains. To prove its point, India’s finance ministry has created its own gauges of the rupee’s trade-weighted performance, and all of this has left investors grappling with the question: what is the fair value for the currency?
Shares of the two-wheeler maker rose 1.6 percent after it reported a marginal year-on-year (YoY) sales growth in February, driven by exports which rose for the first time since September 2015.
Total sales stood at 2,73,513 units compared to 2,72,719 units in February 2016, according to the company's data release on the exchanges.
While exports saw a 16 percent uptick YoY to 1,14,404 units during the month, domestic sales dropped 8 percent to 1,59,109 units.
The rupee edged higher by 6 paise to 66.76 against the dollar in early trade after exporters and banks stepped up selling of the U.S. currency.
Forex dealers said that a higher opening in the domestic equity market and robust GDP numbers for the December quarter also supported the rupee. However, the strength of the dollar overseas on growing expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike this month, limited the gains.
Fed policymakers have been hinting at a rate hike at its meeting scheduled on March 14-15, irrespective of US President Donald Trump's budget plans. This has made the US markets soar to record highs of late.
Yesterday, the rupee had lost 13 paise to close at 66.82 against the dollar.