The rupee on Thursday weakened by 6 paise to close at 83.64 (provisional) against the US dollar as the strength of the US currency in the overseas market and overnight rise in crude oil prices weighed on investor sentiments.
Forex traders expect the rupee to trade with a slight negative bias due to the strong US dollar and weak Asian and European currencies. The US dollar strengthened while the pound weakened amid disappointing UK labor market data.
However, positive domestic markets and foreign fund inflows somewhat mitigated the decline in the domestic unit. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 83.57, and touched an intraday high of 83.55 and low of 83.66 against the dollar during the trading session.
It finally closed at 83.64 (provisional) against the US currency, registering a loss of 6 paise from its previous close. On Tuesday, the rupee closed at 83.58 against the American currency. The rupee had seen its previous lowest close at 83.61 on July 15.
Foreign exchange and stock markets were closed on Wednesday on the occasion of Muharram.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.09 percent higher at 103.83.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures were trading marginally 0.01 percent lower at US$85.07 per barrel. In the domestic equity market, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 626.91 points to hit its all-time high of 81,343.46, while the Nifty surged 187.85 points to hit a record peak of 24,800.85.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital market on Tuesday as they bought shares worth Rs 1,271.45 crore, according to exchange data.
Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday maintained India’s GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal year at 7 percent, saying the agriculture sector is expected to improve given higher than normal monsoon projections.
