Rupee Weakens 28 Paise Against Dollar; Settles At 74.64
The rupee slumped by 28 paise to close at 74.64 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday (November 12), as weak domestic equities influenced investor sentiments. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 74.44 against the greenback and finally closed at 74.64, down 28 paise over its last close. During the session, the domestic unit recorded an intra-day high of 74.38 and a low of 74.74 against the US currency. On Wednesday (November 11), the rupee depreciated by 18 paise to close at 74.36 against the dollar.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.22 per cent to 92.83. "The euphoria around a Joe Biden victory in the US presidential elections and a vaccine becoming available by the year-end seems to be slowly settling down," said Abhishek Goenka, Founder and CEO, IFA Global. He added that the overall risk sentiment, however, continues to remain positive and the dollar though has made a comeback against majors and commodity currencies.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE index ended 236.48 points or 0.54 per cent lower at 43,357.19 and the NSE Nifty slipped 58.35 points or 0.46 per cent to 12,690.80. According to provisional exchange data, the foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 6,207.19 crore on a net basis on November 11. Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.25 per cent to $43.69 per barrel.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced 12 key measures under Atmanirbhar 3.0 scheme to revive the economy. This came after the government approved a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for ten key sectors, including automobiles, telecom, and pharmaceuticals, taking the total outlay for such incentives to almost Rs 2 lakh crore over a five-year period.
"The markets took a breather after eight consecutive days of gains. The Nifty 50 remained in a narrow range of 120 points and formed a Doji candle on the daily chart. We can say that this is a consolidation window that the Nifty has opened and is preparing to move to the level of 12950/13000 on the eve of Diwali. As long as the market does not break the 12530 level, we should stick to the strategy of buy on dips. Another round of buying in financial stocks is more likely in the near future,'' said Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research at Kotak Securities.