Rupee falls, Yuan slightly lower vs. Dollar

Monday,   05-Nov-2018   12:35 PM (IST)

The Indian rupee is trading lower at 73.11/12 levels in the afternoon deals tracking weakness across Asian peers following stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data and as Yuan slumped amid renewed trade worries. However, persistent fall in crude oil prices curbed further losses in the local currency. Rupee traded in the range of 72.76-73.11 levels so far. The seasonally adjusted Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index rose to 52.2 in October, from 50.9 in September. Iran will sell its oil and break sanctions reimposed by the United States on its vital energy and banking sectors, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told economists at a meeting broadcast. Benchmark indices are trading in a narrow range amid weak rupee and taking the cues from Asian markets. At 12:24 PM, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 34,907, down 105 points, while the broader Nifty50 was at 10,507, down 46 points. As per the technical indicators, range for USDINR pair for the remaining part of the day may be 72.60 -73.30 levels. Rupee has an immediate support at 73.22 levels. A breach of the same may see rupee at 73.34 followed by 73.57 and 73.80 levels. On the positive side rupee is likely to face resistance at 72.87 levels and if it is able to break the same then it may gain up to 72.64 levels followed by 72.52 and 72.40 levels. In the forward segment 1mth, 3mth and 6mth annualized premia are currently trading at 4.31%, 4.04% and 4.16% respectively.

The Yuan traded slightly lower while the dollar remained unchanged on Monday after Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the China International Import Expo that Beijing would lower import tariffs and continue to broaden market access. The USD/CNY pair was up at 6.8929. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) raised the daily Yuan reference rate by 395 pips to 6.8976 from Friday's fix of 6.9371. The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies was unchanged at 96.29. The dollar was under pressure last week as growing expectations of an orderly Brexit bolstered global investor sentiment and weakened the safe-haven dollar. Meanwhile, official data released on Friday revealed that U.S. jobs growth rebounded in October and wages recorded their largest annual gain in 9-1/2 years.