Rupee ends tad lower tracking weakness in Asian peers
By Jaspreet Kalra
MUMBAI, Aug 22 (Reuters) -The Indian rupee weakened slightly on Thursday tracking mild declines in most of its Asian peers and pressured bysustained dollar demand from local importers.
The rupee INR=IN closed at 83.9525 against the U.S. dollar, marginally lower than its close at 83.9225 in the previous session.
The currency hovered in a tight band between 83.9375 and 83.9650 during the day.
Traders pointed to intermittent dollar sales from state-run banks that helped keep the rupee above its all-time low of 83.9725 hit earlier in the month.
While the dollar offers were "most likely" on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), it's "hard to be sure", since they were not aggressive, a foreign exchange trader at a mid-sized foreign bank said.
The RBI is likely "making its presence felt" via the intermittent offers instead of intervening to push the rupee higher, the trader added.
Most Asian currencies were down by 0.1% to 0.7% and the dollar index rose 0.1% to 101.2 after falling to its weakest level since December on Wednesday.
The dollar and U.S. bond yields were pegged back by downward revisions to U.S. payrolls and after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's July meeting signalled that the central bank was on track to cut rates in September.
"We see no reason to call for an inversion of the dollar bear trend for now," ING Bank said in a note.
Dollar-rupee forward premiums rose after the data solidified hopes of Fed rate cuts, with the 1-year implied yield INRANPRM1Y=RR touching a 15-month peak of 2.11% before edging lower.
Attention now turns to U.S. jobless claims data due later in the day and the remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, due on Friday.
Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra; Editing by Janane Venkatraman
Related Assets
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.