Rupee Appreciates By 55 Paise For Week, Settles At 75.64 Against Dollar

Rupee Vs Dollar Today: The rupee gave up nearly all of the day's gains on Friday to end at 75.64 against the US dollar. The currency touched 75.43 and 75.65 at the strongest level of the four-hour session, having started the day higher at 75.52 compared to its previous close of 75.66. Gains in domestic equity markets, foreign fund inflows and weakness in the dollar overseas supported the rupee however concerns about the rising COVID-19 cases limited the upside, say analysts.

For the week, the rupee gained by 55 paise - or 0.72 per cent - against the greenback, following two straight weekly losses. At the current level, the rupee is down 6 per cent against the American currency so far this year.

Domestic stock markets jumped more than 1 per cent amid gains across sectors, led by buying interest in financial, automobile and metal stocks. The S&P BSE Sensex index added as many as 398.94 points to 35,241.04, whereas the broader NSE Nifty 50 benchmark climbed to as high as 10,407.75 compared to its previous close of 10,288.90.

Other Asian currencies were in a mixed trend against the greenback on Friday, with the Japanese yen last seen trading 0.24 per cent higher while the Singaporean dollar was up 0.03 per cent. The Chinese yuan and the Indonesian rupiah were down 0.28 per cent and 0.32 per cent respectively at the time.

The dollar index - which gauges the greenback's performance against six currencies - was down 0.09 per cent lower, having declined as much as 0.13 per cent earlier.

Meanwhile, crude oil rates moved higher on Friday on optimism about a recovery in demand around the globe, despite a surge in coronavirus infections in some US states and signs of a revival in US production. Brent crude futures - the global benchmark for crude oil - were last seen trading 1.60 per cent higher at $41.69 per barrel, and were headed for a weekly loss.

“Despite the rising coronavirus concerns, the global equity market is trading higher reacting to new stimulus packages and unconventional easing. But there is a lot of uncertainty over the spike in COVID-19 cases," said Rahul Gupta, head of research-currency, Emkay Global Financial Services.

"The market is trying to figure out what the impact this is going to have on consumer activity in coming months, and it's not clear now because we don't know how bad this spike is going to get," he said.

"FII (foreign institutional investor) inflows into local stocks have dragged the USD/INR spot again towards the 75.50 zone. So we expect it to trade within 75-76 in coming days until the Indo-China border issues escalate,” Mr Gupta added.

Foreign portfolio investors were net buyers of Indian shares to the tune of Rs 1,090.41 crore - or $144.03 million - on Thursday, exchange data show. Foreign investors have been bullish on domestic share markets recently, having so far this much net bought stocks worth Rs 23,414.27 crore ($3.10 billion).

Currency markets currently operate within reduced trading hours due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown. The temporary timings are from 10 am to 2 pm, instead of 9 am to 5 pm.