Rupee gains, GBPUSD slightly up

Tuesday,   24-Apr-2018   12:15 PM (IST)

The Indian rupee rose to 66.34/35 levels (12:10 pm) in the afternoon deals after touching the high of 66.3025/3125 levels tracking a decline in the USD/INR non-deliverable forwards. Dollar sales by foreign banks also helped offset any likely losses tracking overnight gains in the greenback from a sustained rally in U.S. Treasury yields. So far rupee traded in the range of 66.3025-66.44 levels. The indices are trading on a mixed note today despite weakness in their global peers. Sensex is up 140 pts and Nifty hovers near 10,600. As per the technical indicators, range for USDINR pair for the remaining part of the day may be 66.10-66.60 levels. Rupee has an immediate support at 66.42 levels. A breach of the same may see rupee falling to 66.50 followed by 66.55 and 66.61 levels. On the positive side, rupee is likely to face resistance at 66.28 levels and if it is able to break the same then it may gain up to 66.22 levels followed by 66.14 and 66.06 levels. In the forward segment 1mth, 3mth and 6mth annualized premia are currently trading at 4.38%, 4.07% and 4.04% respectively.

The GBP/USD is bouncing slightly in the Asia session, pushing back up into 1.3950 ahead of the European markets. The Sterling has tumbled against the Greenback, closing lower for five consecutive trading days as the USD rebounds against the broader market. A quiet Asian affair with the US dollar in a consolidative mode. As a result, most majors breathed a sigh of relief after yesterday’s broad sell-off, with the Aussie supported just below the 0.75 handle on the back of upbeat Australian trimmed mean CPI readings. However, the Kiwi failed to benefit from a pause in the USD rally and extended sell-off towards the 0.7100 mark while 10-year Treasury yields remain on track to claim the 3 percent figure. Among other related markets, a broad-based recovery is also seen across the commodities, with gold prices headed to $ 1330 levels. Brent oil clocked fresh 3.5 year highs above $ 75 mark while the Asian equities traded higher, led by the rally in the Chinese stocks.