Mumbai: The rupee on Friday broke its eight-session losing streak to end 22 paise higher at 73.86 against the US dollar, taking cues from stronger Asian currencies and lower crude oil prices.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the domestic unit opened lower at 74.10 per dollar from the previous close of 74.08.
It touched a low of 74.27 during the day following a weak trend in domestic equities, before clawing back lost ground to end at 73.86.
The domestic currency had lost 128 paise in the last eight trading sessions till Thursday.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading at 91.93, up 0.05 per cent.
“In the last couple of days, the rupee has seen risk on account of higher crude oil and the stronger dollar index. After falling for eight consecutive days, the rupee gained taking cues from stronger Asian currencies and lower crude oil prices.
“There was aggressive dollar selling from few foreign banks and IPO related inflows well supported Rupee,” said Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.
Parmar further noted that near-term focus will remain on crude oil, dollar index and capital flows for the rupee trend.
On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 21.12 points or 0.04 per cent higher at 52,344.45, while the broader NSE Nifty fell 8.05 points or 0.05 per cent to 15,683.35.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.64 per cent to USD 72.61 per barrel.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Thursday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 879.73 crore, as per exchange data.
“The USD-INR spot is at an inflection point, though optimism over Fed rate hikes is keeping the USD-INR afloat, the price activity suggests that revaluation of positioning is currently taking place,” said Rahul Gupta, Head Of Research- Currency, Emkay Global Financial Services.
According to Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities, the Indian Rupee appreciated on Friday amid exporters’ dollar sales and aggressive greenback sales by foreign banks.
On a weekly basis, the rupee has lost 79 paise against the American currency.
“The rupee weakened for the third straight week and fell 1.1 per cent, its biggest weekly loss against the US dollar in over two months, tracking a sharp jump in the dollar index on hawkish Federal Reserve comments,” Iyer added. —PTI

Press Trust of India