Rupee higher, Australian Dollar up

Thursday,   18-Apr-2019   12:22 PM (IST)

The Indian rupee is trading higher at 69.40/41 levels (12:10 pm) in the afternoon trade after touching the high of 69.3775/3875 levels in early deals tracking record highs for local equities, which helped overcome tepid regional cues. So far rupee traded in the range of 69.3775-69.54 levels. Foreign investors continued to put money into Indian equities amid bets that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will receive a second term. However, benchmark indices gave up their opening gains to slip into the red territory in afternoon deals. At 12:05 PM, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 39,186 down 89 points, while the broader Nifty50 was at 11,757, down 30 points. As per the technical indicators, range for USDINR pair for the remaining part of the day may be 69.25-69.75 levels. Rupee has an immediate support at 69.51 levels. A breach of the same may see rupee at 69.61 followed by 69.74 and 69.87 levels. On the positive side rupee is likely to face resistance at 69.35 levels and if it is able to break the same then it may gain up to 69.28 levels followed by 69.18 and 69.09 levels. In the forward segment 1mth, 3mth and 6mth annualized premia are currently trading at 4.93%, 4.49% and 4.26% respectively. India’s money markets will be shut again tomorrow on account of Good Friday.

Moderate risk-aversion prevailed across the Asian markets amid a sense of caution ahead of the key Euro zone/ US macro data that could set the tone for the markets in the coming days. Meanwhile, traders refrained from placing any big directional bets heading into the Easter weekend holidays and hence, left most majors wavering in tight ranges while the US dollar consolidates its recovery across the board, holding steady near the 97 mark. Amongst the Asia-pac currencies, the USD/JPY pair extended its range play around the 112 handle, little affected by any Japanese headlines or risk-off action in the Asian equities and negative Treasury yields. The Aussie, on the other hand, enjoyed good two-way businesses for the second day in a row and retested the 0.72 handle following the release of mixed Australian jobs and NAB business surveys. The Chinese proxy, the AUD, was unperturbed by the report that PBOC is unlikely to cut the RRR in the near-term. Meanwhile, the Kiwi traded on the defensive above the 0.67 level amid the recent decline in oil prices on surging US output. Therefore, the Loonie also remained on the offers near mid-1.33s.