Rupee in range, Australian Dollar Falls on Weak China PPI Data.

Friday,   09-Nov-2018   12:30 PM (IST)

The Indian rupee is trading range bound and is currently quoted 72.70/71 levels (12:15 pm) in the afternoon deals amid a further decline in oil prices, which helped outweigh a jump in the dollar index following the Federal Reserve’s commitment for more rate increases going forward. Brent crude dropped about 2% on Thursday to close at its lowest level in seven months and U.S. benchmark declined over 1.5% to near $60.50 to end at lowest since mid-march. So far rupee traded in the range of 72.6650-72.8225 levels. The domestic stock markets recouped early losses amid strong global cues by the afternoon session on Friday. At 12:11 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex traded at 35,241.22, up 3.54 points or 0.01 per cent, and the Nifty50 index of the National Stock Exchange was at 10,608.70, with a gain of 10.30 points. As per the technical indicators, range for USDINR pair for the remaining part of the day may be 72.50 -73.15 levels. Rupee has an immediate support at 72.80 levels. A breach of the same may see rupee at 72.88 followed by 72.95 and 73.02 levels. On the positive side rupee is likely to face resistance at 72.64 levels and if it is able to break the same then it may gain up to 72.57 levels followed by 72.48 and 72.39 levels. In the forward segment 1mth, 3mth and 6mth annualized premia are currently trading at 4.07%, 3.93% and 4.09% respectively.

The Aussie dollar slipped after China reported weaker-than-expected China PPI release. The U.S. dollar was little changed on Friday after the Federal Reserve left interest rates on hold as expected. The U S dollar index was up 0.08% to 96.58. Overnight, the dollar received some support following the Fed announcement as the central bank gave an upbeat assessment of the economy and reaffirmed expectations for a December rate hike. The Fed maintained its confidence that "economic activity has been rising at a strong rate." GDP growth has averaged 3.3% for the first three quarters in 2018 and markets projected growth for the final three-month to be around 3%.So far, the Fed has raised rates three times this year and is widely expected to do so again next month. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday that initial jobless claims dropped by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 215,000 for the week ended Nov. 3, in line with economists' estimates. The AUD/USD pair slipped 0.2% after China reported a weaker-than-expected PPI data. The October factory-gate inflation gauge came-in at 3.3%, compared with the expected 3.4% and down from the previous month's reading of 3.6%.Elsewhere, the USD/CNY pair gained 0.2% to 6.9483 as the People's Bank of China (PBOC) set the Yuan reference rate at 6.9329 vs the previous day's fix of 6.9163.The USD/JPY pair was down 0.1% to 113.91.