New Delhi: The rupee fell 13 paise to settle at 83.16 against the US dollar on Friday, dragged down by rising crude oil prices and a strong greenback against major rivals overseas. However, a positive trend in domestic markets restricted the downside for the local unit, forex traders said.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 83.02 against the US dollar and moved in a range of 82.98 and 83.20. The rupee finally settled at 83.16 against the US dollar, down 13 paise from its previous close. On Thursday, the rupee closed 2 paise lower at 83.03 against the US dollar.
"The Indian rupee traded in the narrow range amid dollar inflows from the FTSE rebalancing while the nationalized bank bought the dollar on behalf of oil importers," said Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.
Spot USD/INR is expected to consolidate between 82.70 to 83.15 before next week's three major central banks' (Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), Bank of England (BoE) and Bank of Japan (BoJ) policy decisions. "The dovish ECB hike and another round of strong US activity data sent the dollar index (DXY) on another rally above 105," Parmar said.
Parmar further added that the dollar may correct a bit lower in the near term, but the risks remain skewed towards further strengthening, or at least until the US activity picture starts to show some cracks.
"The momentum in USDINR from 83.05 to 83.18 came as a result of knee-jerk post-India's trade deficit data which was released at USD 24.16 billion v/s forecasted USD 21 billion," according to CR Forex Advisors.
It further noted that as there was a huge USD short position in the NDF around 83.10, the stop loss got triggered leading to a sharp rise in the USDINR pair. The key resistance zone to watch would be around 83.25-30, it added.
India's exports declined by 6.86 percent to USD 34.48 billion in August this year as against USD 37.02 billion in the same month last year, government data showed on Friday. Imports too declined by 5.23 percent to USD 58.64 billion as against USD 61.88 billion recorded in August 2022.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell by 0.19 percent to 105.20. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, advanced 0.28 percent to USD 93.96 per barrel. On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE Sensex closed 319.63 points or 0.47 percent higher at 67,838.63. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 89.25 points or 0.44 percent to 20,192.35.
According to exchange data, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital market on Friday as they purchased shares worth Rs 164.42 crore. (PTI)
