MUMBAI – The rupee on Monday declined by 8 paise to close at 73.10 against the US currency mainly due to the dollar’s gains in the global markets.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the domestic currency opened flat at 73.02 but later lost ground to touch a low of 73.11 in the day trade. On Friday, the rupee had settled at 73.02 against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, traded 0.28 per cent higher at 92.29. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.63 per cent to USD 72.15 per barrel.
Analysts said the US Treasury yields rising to more than one-week high supported the greenback which had dropped to around month’s low last week.
“RBI intervention remains a major factor supporting USDINR near 73 levels. However, upside remains capped near 73.40 as exporters remain active sellers,” said Anindya Banerjee, DVP, Currency Derivatives & Interest Rate Derivatives at Kotak Securities Ltd.
According to Jateen Trivedi, Senior Research Analyst at LKP Securities, the rupee traded near 73.10 compared to 73.00 previously due to gains in the dollar index which took support near 92.00 and scanned towards 92.25.
Trivedi mentioned that the rupee has moved in line with record breaking run in the stock markets and any profit booking in equity shall result in profit booking in rupee as well.
“The range for rupee can be between 72.85-73.40,” Trivedi said.
On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 166.96 points or 0.29 per cent higher at 58,296.91, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 54.20 points or 0.31 per cent to 17,377.80.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market on Friday, as they purchased shares worth Rs 768.58 crore, according to the exchange data.
