Rupee opened lower, Dollar higher vs. major currencies
Friday,
10-Aug-2018
09:07 AM (IST)
The Indian rupee opened the day lower at 68.83/84 levels compared to its previous close at 68.6750/6850 levels as dollar index climbs to highest in over a year and decline in Turkish lira and Russian Rouble spills over to Asia. Indian government bonds flattish in early trade ahead of weekly auction. It’s a flat start to the equity market on this Friday morning, with the Nifty trading around 11,450 in the opening tick, while the Sensex has breached 38,000.The Sensex was up 6.56 points or 0.02% at 38030.93, while the Nifty was down 6.30 points or 0.05% at 11464.40. As per the technical indicators range for the USDINR pair may be 68.60-69.05 levels. Rupee has an immediate support at 68.90 levels. A breach of the same may see rupee at 69.00 followed by 69.11 levels. On the positive side rupee is likely to face resistance at 68.69 levels and if it is able to break the same then it may gain up to 68.58 levels followed by 68.43 levels.
The dollar stood tall on Friday, hovering just short of a 13-month high against a basket of peers as European currencies such as the pound and euro continued to lose traction. The Russian rouble dropped to its weakest since late 2016 after Washington said it would impose fresh sanctions on Moscow, while the Turkish lira plumbed a record low in the wake of a diplomatic rift with the United States. In contrast, the pound has slumped 1.4 percent this week amid increasing speculation Britain will leave the European Union without an agreement regarding its future relationship with Brussels. Sterling was little changed at $1.2830 after plumbing a one-year low of $1.2819 overnight. The euro was steady at $1.1524 after brushing a seven-week trough of $1.1516. The single currency had retreated 0.7 percent overnight, its decline accelerating after the European Central Bank said that risks to global growth are increasing as the risk of protectionism and the threat of higher U.S. tariffs sap confidence. The euro was down 0.4 percent for the week, dogged by renewed investor concerns that Italy was heading for a costly and unsustainable spending spree. The dollar dipped 0.1 percent to 110.92 yen, nudged off a session-high of 111.165. The pair has been caught in a relatively narrow 111.53-110.71 band this week. Elsewhere, the New Zealand dollar remained on the back foot, stretching its overnight slide to $0.6598, its lowest since March 2016.The Kiwi lost 2 percent on Thursday after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand surprised the market by committing to holding rates at record lows until the end of 2020.
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