Money Market Watchlist: Union Budget, Trade, Manufacturing Data Likely To Dominate Trade
The Indian rupee snapped its two-week slide to end 29 paise, or over 36 percent higher against the U.S. dollar.
Rising for three straight sessions, the domestic currency rose 14 paise higher on Thursday to end at fresh one-week high of 63.55 a dollar. The forex market sentiments remained highly bullish despite rising crude oil prices overseas. Steady foreign fund flows into local equities along with weaker dollar predominantly supported the rupee.
Meanwhile, rally in India's foreign exchange reserves continued for the fourth week in a row, and scaled a new peak at $414.784 billion in the week to Jan. 19, helped by rise in foreign currency assets, according to the Reserve Bank of India data.
In the week ahead, investors will be turning their attention to domestic trade data along with manufacturing data, which is an indicator of the economic health of the manufacturing sector. A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 indicates contraction. Traders will remain cautious ahead of the Union budget on Feb. 1.
On the global front, Asian currencies were trading higher as dollar weakened to three year low, after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin endorsed the dollar's decline as a benefit to the American Economy and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the U.S. would fight harder to protect its exporters, Bloomberg reported.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.33 percent at 89.1 and on track for a weekly fall of 1.6 percent. The euro was up 0.15 percent against the greenback at $1.2413, after hitting a more than three-year high of $1.2536 on Thursday.
Globally, U.S. President Donald Trump's State of the Union Speech, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's final Federal Open Market Committee meeting along with slew of economic data will give markets plenty of catalysts in the week ahead.
In the coming week, the following events could impact trading in the currencies markets:
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
-
Talking Points This Week: AI Cash Burn, A Tiger Comeback And An India That Still Finds Its Own Path
India is not immune to higher oil or tighter global liquidity, yet its earnings base is broader, its domestic policy levers are still available.
