Rupee extends winning run to 7th day; rises 22 paise to 70.92 against dollar amid fall in oil prices

Mumbai: The rupee marched higher for the seventh straight session on Friday to close at 70.92 per US dollar, up 22 paise, as softening crude oil prices and easing US-China trade tensions bolstered investor sentiment. Most Asian currencies gained following signs of rapprochement between US and China over their trade dispute. US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said that Washington wants to make ‘meaningful progress’ in China trade talks. [caption id=“attachment_5114261” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] Robust buying in domestic equities and a weakening dollar also propped up the domestic unit, forex traders said. The Indian currency has appreciated by 147 paise in the last seven trading sessions. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 70.94 a dollar. It shuttled between a high of 70.86 and low of 71.15, before finally settling at 70.92, up 22 paise over its previous close. The rupee had finished at 71.14 against the greenback on Thursday. On a weekly basis, the local unit has gained 82 paise. “In the past 7-days, rupee has appreciated by 2.13 percent on some profit-booking in dollar amid hopes of US-China trade truce,” said Rahul Gupta, currency research head, Emkay Global Financial Services Limited. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, slipped 0.29 percent to 98.02. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.07 percent to trade at $60.34 per barrel. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), who were net buyers for the past few sessions, offloaded shares worth Rs 405.45 crore on Friday, according to provisional exchange data. The 10-year government bond yield was at 6.64 percent on Friday. On the domestic market front, the 30-share BSE Sensex ended 280.71 points, or 0.76 percent, higher at 37,384.99. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty settled 93.10 points, or 0.85 percent, higher at 11,075.90. The Financial Benchmark India Private Ltd (FBIL) set the reference rate for the rupee/dollar at 71.3175 and for rupee/euro at 78.5068. The reference rate for rupee/British pound was fixed at 87.9098 and for rupee/100 Japanese yen at 66.02.