Rupee off highs, USDJPY lower

Tuesday,   19-Mar-2019   12:25 PM (IST)

The Indian rupee is trading off highs at 68.61/62 levels (12:15 pm) in the afternoon deals after touching the low of 68.6450/6550 levels on suspected RBI intervention. There are dollar buying in the market to limit the gain in rupee. Rupee touched the high of 68.3550/3650 levels today morning amid broad weakness on the dollar before the beginning of the two-day Federal Reserve meeting. The Equity market erased its opening gains and is trading flat with positive bias. At 12:10 PM, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 38,176 up 81 points, while the broader Nifty50 was at 11,484, up 22 points. As per the technical indicators, range for USDINR pair for the remaining part of the day may be 68.20-68.80 levels. Rupee has an immediate support at 68.71 levels. A breach of the same may see rupee at 68.82 followed by 69.00 and 69.18 levels. On the positive side rupee is likely to face resistance at 68.42 levels and if it is able to break the same then it may gain up to 68.24 levels followed by 68.13 and 68.02 levels. In the forward segment 1mth, 3mth and 6mth annualized premia are currently trading at 4.69%, 4.19% and 3.79% respectively.

The US dollar continued to meander near two-week across its main competitors, as expectations of a dovish Fed statement mounted that left the Asian markets unnerved. Among the Asia-pac currencies, the Aussie failed to take on the recovery above the 0.7110/15 barrier, as downbeat Australian housing data and RBA minutes remained a drag on the AUD. The Kiwi, however, traded firmer above the 0.6850 level amid the recent surge in oil prices. The Yen also gained on moderate risk-aversion, as USD/JPY headed back towards the 111 handle. Among the European currencies, the Euro tracked the recovery in gold prices while the pound attempted a tepid bounce, but remained capped below 1.3300 amid Brexit uncertainty. Gold prices on Comex extended the recent uptick and traded firmer above the 1305 mark.