Rupee flat, USDJPY in range

Monday,   22-Apr-2019   12:23 PM (IST)

The Indian rupee is currently trading flat at 69.75/76 levels (12:12 pm) in the afternoon deals compared to its opening at 69.75/76 levels. In early deals rupee touched the low of 69.87/88 levels as Brent crude surged on the back of a report that the U.S. will end waivers of sanctions on oil imports from Iran. There were dollar buying by importers. However, rupee moved up to 69.6725/6825 levels later in morning deals on the back of dollar selling by exporters and banks. Sensex slips 300 pts and Nifty is below 11,700. At 12:15 PM, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 38,851 down 287 points, while the broader Nifty50 was at 11,656, down 97 points. As per the technical indicators, range for USDINR pair for the remaining part of the day may be 69.45-69.95 levels. Rupee has an immediate support at 69.86 levels. A breach of the same may see rupee at 69.96 followed by 70.05 and 70.15 levels. On the positive side rupee is likely to face resistance at 69.66 levels and if it is able to break the same then it may gain up to 69.57 levels followed by 69.46 and 69.36 levels. In the forward segment 1mth, 3mth and 6mth annualized premia are currently trading at 5.12%, 4.55% and 4.24% respectively.

Forex today continued to witness holiday-thinned trading in Asia, as financial markets in Australia, Hong Kong and many major European economies remain closed this Easter Monday. Amid light trading, broad-based US dollar strength was the key underlying theme, in the wake of the relative strength of the US economy, especially after a stellar US retail sales report released last Thursday. As a result, most majors traded on the back foot while the USD/JPY pair traded in a tight range capped by the 112 handle. The Antipodeans turned lower but held onto its recent familiar trading ranges, despite the oil-price rally. Both crude benchmarks rallied to fresh five-month tops after the Washington Post reported that the US will try to force the Iranian oil exports to zero. The Canadian dollar benefitted the most across the fx space, with the USD/CAD pair moving further away from the 1.34 handle. Meanwhile, both the European currencies, the Euro and the GBP, traded modestly flat, as markets look forward to fresh economic news and Brexit-related headlines.