The rupee on Thursday edged higher by 23 paise at 73.64 against the US dollar following improved risk appetite among investors on positive global cues.
Analysts said investors globally saw a US Fed statement starting as early as November and encouraging news on China’s Evergrande crisis helped offset some of the uncertainty on the global front.
In the interbank forex market, the local unit opened flat against the greenback at 73.85. During the session, it witnessed an intra-day high of 73.61 and finally closed at 73.64.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.29% to 93.19.
Dileep said, “The Indian rupee erased loss tracking signals from regional currencies on Wednesday and global equities bounced back after the US Federal Reserve meeting. Global risk looks pretty balanced, with two major events of the week.” The FOMC and Evergrande chaos is behind.” Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.
According to Gaurang Somaiya, forex and bullion analyst at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, the rupee opened on a flat note and edged higher in the latter part of the session after gains in domestic equities and some retracement in the dollar against its key crosses.
On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged and announced it would begin reducing its monthly bond purchases as of November.
The focus will now be on the initial US manufacturing PMI numbers and better-than-expected numbers may support the dollar at lower levels. “We expect USD/INR (Spot) to trade with a positive bias and bid in the range of 73.40 and 74.05,” Mr. Somaiya said.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures fell 0.10% to $76.11 a barrel.
On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex closed 958.03 points or 1.63% higher at 59,885.36, while the broader NSE Nifty ended 276.30 points or 1.57% higher at 17,822.95.
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