Mumbai, Aug 22: The Indian rupee depreciated 11 paise, to close at 79.87 against the US dollar on Monday. At the Interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee ended at 79.87, as against its 79.76 close in the previous trading session against the US dollar. “Rupee trade in a range of 79.70-79.90 and closed higher by 0.09 points against the dollar on the back of crude weakness continuing below $97 along with Iran oil deal hopes which can raise the supply of crude and bring prices even further down helping rupee curb the fall,” said Jateen Trivedi, VP Research Analyst at LKP Securities.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.20 percent to 108.38.
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, declined 0.81 percent to $95.94 per barrel. The domestic equities, Sensex ended 872.28 points, or 1.48 percent, down at 58,773.87, and Nifty ended down 267.75 points or 1.51 percent at 17,490.70.
BSE IT fell 1.65 per cent, BSE Auto fell 1.92 per cent, BSE Metal fell 2.69 per cent, and BSE Cons Durables fell 1.57 per cent. These sectors are the worst hit and have seen a heavy sell-off in the market.
“The current two major positives for the rupee would be the RBI’s intervention and FPI/FDI flows as in the past, the RBI has intervened to curb a sharp fall in the rupee. Also, the current month’s inflows of a whopping $5.6 billion into equities have been rupee pro. It would be interesting to see how far is the RBI able to protect the pair amid the scale weighing heavy on the negative side. If the RBI manages to keep it protected, we shall see the rupee trading in a range of 79.00-80.00 levels. Else, if it crosses its all-time high of 80.06, then we could see further momentum towards 80.50 to 81.00 levels,” said Amit Pabari, MD at CR Forex Advisors.
