Rupee in range, Australian Dollar up

Monday,   17-Jun-2019   12:22 PM (IST)

The Indian rupee is trading in range and is currently quoted 69.82/83 levels (12:20 pm). Rupee fell to 69.8850/8950 levels in early deals as the dollar strengthened in the wake of buoyant U.S. retail sales data. An uptick in oil prices further weighed on demand for the local unit. So far rupee traded in the range of 69.7850-69.8850 levels. Data released late Friday showed India’s trade gap widened to a 6-month high of $15.36 billion. At 12:07 PM, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 39,178 down 274 points, while the broader Nifty50 was at 11,732, down 91 points. As per the technical indicators, range for USDINR pair for the remaining part of the day may be 69.50-70.00 levels. Rupee has an immediate support at 69.88 levels. A breach of the same may see rupee at 69.98 followed by 70.08 and 70.18 levels. On the positive side rupee is likely to face resistance at 69.78 levels and if it is able to break the same then it may gain up to 69.68 levels followed by 69.58 and 69.48 levels. In the forward segment 1mth, 3mth and 6mth annualized premia are currently trading at 4.33%, 4.31% and 4.24% respectively.

The USD bulls took a breather in Monday’s Asian trading and sent the US dollar broadly lower from multi-day tops reached after a stronger US retail sales report. Therefore, most majors breathed a sigh of relief on broad-based US dollar retreat. The Kiwi emerged the top beneficiary and regained the 0.65 handle, up 0.30% on the day. The spot also cheered the risk-on sentiment amid higher Asian equities and a lack of fresh trade-related updates. The Aussie followed suit and bounced to near 0.6880 levels while the anti-risk Yen remained on the back foot around 108.60 region vs. the greenback almost throughout the session. Among the European currency pairs, EUR/USD extended the bounce above the 1.12 handle while the Cable traded better bid as the outcome of the UK PM’s race became clearer after Sunday’s debate amongst the UK PM hopefuls. On the commodities front, both crude benchmarks traded flat amid ongoing Middle East tensions while gold prices on Comex looked to stabilize around 1245 levels.