Indian Rupee: Dollar Strength Could Weigh

11 Feb 2022 , 09:06 AM

Broad strength in the dollar overseas could add pressure on the Indian rupee in early trades on Friday, 11 February 2022. However, easing crude oil prices may well limit losses in the domestic currency. Rupee fell in the previous session after the Reserve Bank of India kept key policy rates unchanged and said it will continue with the accommodative stance. RBI kept the benchmark lending rate unchanged for the 10th time in a row at 4 per cent. The Monetary Policy Committee decided to keep the reverse repo rate unchanged at 3.35 per cent.

On Thursday, rupee declined by 10 paise to close at 74.94 against the US dollar. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 74.90 against the American dollar, and later witnessed an intra-day high of 74.88 and a low of 75.05 against the greenback. The local unit finally ended the day at 74.94, down 10 paise from the previous close of 74.84.

Domestic equity barometers ended with strong gains on Thursday. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, advanced 460.06 points or 0.79% to 58,926.03. The Nifty 50 index gained 142.05 points or 0.81% to 17,605.85. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 1,732.58 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 2,727.23 crore in the Indian equity market on 10 February, provisional data showed.

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading lower on Friday, tracking losses seen overnight on Wall Street after the release of a hotter-than-expected U.S. consumer inflation report. Markets in Japan are closed on Friday for a holiday. Wall Street ended sharply lower on Thursday after US consumer prices data came in hotter than expected and subsequent comments from a Federal Reserve official raised fears the US central bank will hike rates aggressively to fight inflation.

St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard said the data had made him dramatically more hawkish. Bullard, a voting member of the Feds rate-setting committee this year, reportedly said he now wanted a full percentage point of interest rate hikes by July 1. On the data front, the consumer price index rose 0.6% from December, the Labor Department said, while in the 12 months through January, CPI jumped 7.5%, the biggest year-on-year gain since February 1982.

Meanwhile, the dollar was firm in Asia on Friday after hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation and hawkish comments from a Federal Reserve official unleashed a wave of bets on aggressive rate hikes, though similar pressures worldwide kept a lid on gains. The U.S. dollar index was a tad stronger at 95.86.

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