Rupee up, USDJPY higher

Monday,   11-Feb-2019   12:22 PM (IST)

The Indian rupee rose to 71.15/16 levels in the afternoon deals on the back of dollar sales by two large private-sector banks, mostly on behalf of exporters. Rupee has traded in a 71.15-71.29 range so far amid exporter selling interest and tepid local risk appetite. The benchmark indices are around 0.5 per cent lower weighed by automobiles and pharmaceutical stocks. At 12:15 PM, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 36,397, down 149 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 10,889, down 55 points. As per the technical indicators, range for USDINR pair for the remaining part of the day may be 70.85-71.65 levels. Rupee has an immediate support at 71.26 levels. A breach of the same may see rupee at 71.35 followed by 71.46 and 71.57 levels. On the positive side rupee is likely to face resistance at 71.12 levels and if it is able to break the same then it may gain up to 71.06 levels followed by 70.90 and 70.81 levels. In the forward segment 1mth, 3mth and 6mth annualized premia are currently trading at 4.07%, 4.19% and 4.05% respectively.

Forex today witnessed some volatile moves in the Swiss Franc in thin early Asian trading, with the USD/CHF pair having rallied hard nearly 1 big figure to test the 1.01 handle before reversing the entire spike to revert to parity. No major catalyst was seen behind the upsurge, except for the stops triggering on a breach of the 1.0030 strong upside barrier. The safe-haven Swiss Franc managed to regain the lost ground amid risk-off action in the Asian equities while the US dollar saw another leg higher and refreshed six-week tops at 96.71 vs. its main peers, as markets flocked to safety heading into the US-China trade talks scheduled later this week. Among the Asia-pac currencies, the Antipodeans bounced on the back of a firmer re-open to the Chinese markets and record Chinese iron-ore futures. However, the upside lacked follow-through amid broad-based US dollar strength, leaving the Aussie struggling around 0.7100 levels. The USD/JPY pair attempted another run to test the 110 supply zone, but sellers continued to lurk amid a cautious market environment. Meanwhile, gold prices on Comex traded modestly flat near 1315 levels, despite global growth and trade worries. Both crude benchmarks slipped nearly 1% on bearish US drilling activity report.