Rupee ended higher, Dollar rose vs. major currencies

Friday,   23-Feb-2018   05:41 PM (IST)

The Indian rupee ended the session higher at 64.73/74 levels compared to its opening at 64.95/96 levels after touching the high of 64.6950/7050 levels as gains in local and regional shares boosted investor appetite for emerging market assets. Rupee traded in the range of 64.6950-64.95 levels today. Most other Asian currencies ended flat to higher against the dollar. Indian shares ended higher today tracking gains in global equities, as investors bought shares of recent underperformers such as pharma and financials. The benchmark BSE index closed up 0.95 percent at 34,142.15.  The broader NSE index ended 1.04 percent higher at 10,491.05. Indian sovereign bonds fell for a second straight week, as banks remained sour on debt while hawkish Monetary Policy Committee meeting minutes spurred bets of interest rate increases going ahead. In the forward segment 1mth, 3mth and 6mth annualized premia ended the day at 4.22%, 4.45% and 4.14% respectively. India's foreign exchange reserves rose to $421.72 billion as of Feb 16, compared with $419.76 billion a week earlier, the Reserve Bank of India said.

The U.S. dollar continued to rise against other major currencies on Friday, after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting and Thursday's upbeat data boosted optimism over the strength of the U.S. economy. The greenback was boosted after the U.S. Labor Department reported on Thursday that initial jobless claims fell by 7,000 to 222,000 last week, compared to expectations for jobless claims to total 230,000. The data came a day after the minutes of the Fed's January policy meeting showed that central bank officials see increased economic growth and rising inflation as justification to continue to raise interest rates gradually. The dollar had been pressured lower recently by expectations for a faster pace of monetary tightening outside the U.S., which would lessen the divergence between the Fed and other central banks. Official data earlier showed that euro zone consumer price inflation rose 1.3% year-over-year in January, in line with expectations. On a monthly basis, consumer prices slipped 0.9% last month, also in line with expectations.