Rupee opened lower, Yen higher vs. Dollar
Friday,
23-Mar-2018
09:03 AM (IST)
The Indian rupee opened the day lower at 65.18/19 levels compared to its previous close at 65.10/11 levels as global risk appetite sours as US moves toward imposing tariffs on Chinese imports. The benchmark indices opened over 1% lower today, tracking losses in the key Asian markets which fell on fears of a global trade war. Nifty breaches 10000 and Sensex below 33000. Indian government bonds gain, with benchmark at over a month's high, amid expectations that New Delhi will take steps to ease next FY supply burden. As per the technical indicators range for the USDINR pair may be 64.95-65.35 levels. Rupee has an immediate support at 65.25 levels. A breach of the same may see rupee at 65.34 followed by 65.44 levels. On the positive side rupee is likely to face resistance at 65.07 levels and if it is able to break the same then it may gain up to 64.97 levels followed by 64.90 levels.
The yen hit a 16-month high against the dollar on Friday, while the Turkish lira skidded to a record low, as concerns over rising global trade tensions triggered a bout of investor risk aversion. The yen rose broadly amid talk of position unwinding by Japanese retail investors, who had held long positions in higher-yielding currencies such as the Turkish lira against the Japanese currency. The dollar fell to as low as 104.61 yen in early Asian trade on Friday as the Japanese currency pushed higher. The dollar was last down at 104.85 yen. The Turkish lira slid by more than 3 percent against the yen early on Friday. It was last down 1.2 percent on the day at around 26.41. The broad rise in the yen came after financial markets were rattled by worries over rising U.S.-China trade tensions. U.S. President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Thursday that will target up to $60 billion in Chinese goods with tariffs, but only after a 30-day consultation period that starts once a list is published. While his actions appeared to be more of a warning shot than the start of a full-blown trade war with Beijing, U.S. equities slumped as investors fretted about the potential impact on global trade. In the wake of Trump’s actions, China’s commerce ministry said on Friday that the country was planning measures against up to $3 billion of U.S. imports to balance U.S. tariffs against Chinese steel and aluminum products. The yen is often viewed as a safe haven currency in times of market turbulence and economic uncertainty, partly because of the resilience provided by Japan’s current account surplus.
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