Rupee drops 18 paise to 69.46 against dollar on strengthening of greenback in overseas markets, rising crude oil prices

Mumbai: The rupee on Friday fell by 18 paise to close at 69.46 against the US currency on the strengthening of the greenback in overseas markets and rising crude oil prices. Forex traders said that weakened Asian currencies also added to the pressure on the domestic unit. However, gains in domestic equities supported the rupee and capped its losses to some extent, they added. At the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market, the domestic currency opened higher at 69.23 per dollar, but lost ground during the day to fall to 69.52. The rupee finally settled at 69.46, down 18 paise over its previous close. The rupee had settled at 69.28 against the US dollar Thursday. [caption id=“attachment_4619341” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] The local currency on a weekly basis gained 24 paise. “Rupee has declined against the dollar following recovery in crude oil prices and lower Asian currencies against US dollar,” said VK Sharma, Head-PCG & Capital Market Strategy, HDFC Securities. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, climbed 1.62 percent to $62.67 per barrel. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.02 percent to 97.06, ahead of the US payroll data. Meanwhile, the 10-year government bond yield was at 6.97 percent on Friday. “The yield on benchmark 10 year bonds rises 4 bps to 6.97 percent, heading for a fourth straight weekly drop after RBI’s “accommodative” stance from “neutral” and cut 25 bps interest rate,” Sharma said. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital markets, pulling out Rs 478.84 crore on Friday, the provisional data showed. Equity benchmarks had a highly volatile trade Friday. The BSE gauge settled 86.18 points, or 0.22 percent, up at 39,615.90. The broader NSE Nifty rose 26.90 points, or 0.23 per cent, to settle at 11,870.65. Meanwhile, Financial Benchmark India Private Ltd (FBIL) set the reference rate for the rupee/dollar at 69.3205 and for rupee/euro at 77.8192. The reference rate for rupee/British pound was fixed at 87.8744 and for rupee/100 Japanese yen at 64.12.