Rupee Snaps 2-Day Winning Streak, Settles Lower To 74.20 Against Dollar

Snapping its two-day winning streak, the rupee declined two paise against the US dollar on Friday, June 25, to settle at 74.20, as rising crude oil prices weighed on the foreign exchange market sentiment. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the domestic currency opened at 74.15 against the dollar and swung in the range of 74.14 to 74.25. In an early trade session, the local unit inched four paise higher to 74.14 against the greenback. 

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, slipped 0.08 per cent to 91.74.

''The rupee is expected to trade in the range of 74.00-74.40 with a mixed bias amid the absence of key triggers in the market. Broadly, the dollar index is eyeing big triggers from Fed member's tone on the interest rates,'' said Mr Amit Pabari, MD, CR Forex.

''Domestically, hefty investments by FII and FPIs failed to help rupee to recover against USD as oil along with other importers are rushing to cover their dollars. As we are approaching month-end, one can expect higher volatility in the pair in the remaining of the days as RBI will churn in their forward book, just like we had seen over the last three months,'' he added.

On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 226.04 points or 0.43 per cent higher at 52,925.04, while the broader NSE Nifty rose 72.55 points or 0.46 per cent to 15,863.00.

“Equities market in India witnessed positive move this week, supported by further decline in new Covid cases and increased pace of vaccination. BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 increased by 1.1 per cent each during this week. Market rally was broad based with BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap index also moving up from correction witnessed in the latter part of last week. BSE midcap and BSE smallcap gained 1.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively,'' said Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research at Kotak Securities.

According to exchange data, the foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Juen 24 as they offloaded shares worth Rs 2,890.94 crore. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, declined 0.34 per cent to $ 75.30 per barrel.