Rupee higher, GBPUSD remains steady

Tuesday,   17-Jul-2018   12:21 PM (IST)

The Indian rupee is trading higher at 68.28/29 levels in the afternoon deals tracking an overnight decline in crude oil prices to the lowest level since mid-April. However, rupee touched the low of 68.4550/4650 levels in morning deals today due to some oil related dollar buying in the market. The benchmark indices are moving in a range with some positive bias despite weakness in their Asian peers. As per the technical indicators, range for USDINR pair for the remaining part of the day may be 68.15-68.65 levels. Rupee has an immediate support at 68.41 levels. A breach of the same may see rupee falling to 68.52 followed by 68.58 and 68.65 levels. On the positive side, rupee is likely to face resistance at 68.23 levels and if it is able to break the same then it may gain up to 68.17 levels followed by 68.06 and 67.94 levels. In the forward segment 1mth, 3mth and 6mth annualized premia are currently trading at 4.31%, 4.16% and 4.19% respectively.

The dollar was little changed on Tuesday as investors awaited further clues on monetary policy when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testify on the economy and monetary policy later in the day. Sterling is trading steadily on the upside at around 1.3250s before the Bank of England Governor Carney accompanied with Deputy Governor Cunliffe testify in UK parliament on Financial Stability report while the UK labor market statistics are expected to see the unemployment rate steady at four decades low while closely watched wages are expected to decelerate to 2.7% after bonuses are excluded. The UK Prime Minister Theresa May won the approval of the House of Commons after she adopted Brexiteer amendments to a key piece of customs legislation, and the proposals were narrowly voted through the House of Commons late Monday. Euro is trading higher well above 1.1727 level against the US Dollar after the Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari claimed the the flattening yield curve requires the end of the rate hiking cycle. Neel Kashkari, a well-known policy dove stands in complete opposition to the rest of the Committee while the Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell is expected to deliver remarks in Congress painting the picture of gradual rate increases later on Tuesday.