Rupee lower, GBPUSD gains

Tuesday,   12-Dec-2017   12:30 PM (IST)

The Indian rupee falls to 64.48/49 levels (12:15 pm) in the afternoon deals after touching the low of 64.52/53 levels as the greenback strengthened amid prospects of a near-certain interest rate increase by the U.S. Federal Reserve tomorrow. Higher global crude oil prices raised concerns about imported inflation, further pressuring domestic assets. So far rupee traded in the range of 64.41-64.52 levels. Benchmark indices are trading lower following Asian shares that took a breather after three straight sessions of gains, with markets consolidating in the hope an upswing in global growth could outlast a likely hike in US borrowing costs this week. As per the technical indicators range for the USDINR pair for the remaining part of the day may be 64.25-64.75 levels. Rupee has an immediate support at 64.53 levels. A breach of the same may see rupee at 64.58 followed by 64.64 and 64.70 levels. On the positive side rupee is likely to face resistance at 64.42 levels and if it is able to break the same then it may gain up to 64.36 levels followed by 64.31 and 64.26 levels. In the forward segment 1mth, 3mth and 6mth annualized premia are currently trading at 3.66%, 3.86% and 4.32% respectively.

The GBP/USD pair gained some positive traction on Tuesday and recovered part of previous session's slide back closer to near two-week lows. A recent article published in The Telegraph quoted Brexit secretary David Davis saying that the UK government won't pay the agreed Brexit divorce bill if they fail to reach a trade deal with the EU by March 2019 and kept the British Pound under some selling pressure on Monday. However, a mildly softer tone around the US Dollar helped the pair to snap two-consecutive days of losing streak and seems to be only factors driving the pair higher on Tuesday. Traders also seemed inclined to lighten their bearish bets ahead of this week's key event risks, including today's release of the crucial UK consumer price inflation figures for November.