Rupee higher, USDJPY slips lower

Thursday,   26-Mar-2020   12:30 PM (IST)

The Indian rupee is trading higher at 75.17/18 levels in the afternoon deals boosted by a further recovery in local equities and culling of dollar long positions. There are dollar selling by foreign banks. So far rupee traded in the range of 75.17-75.95 levels. At 12:12 PM, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 29,678, up 1141 points, while the broader Nifty50 was at 8,713, up 395 point. As per the technical indicators, range for USDINR pair for the remaining part of the day may be 75.00-76.30 levels. Rupee has an immediate support at 75.73 levels. A breach of the same may see rupee at 76.20 followed by 76.44 and 76.69 levels. On the positive side rupee is likely to face resistance at 75.01 levels and if it is able to break the same then it may gain up to 74.76 levels followed by 74.29 and 73.82 levels.

The risk-off sentiment remained the underlying theme in Asia this Thursday, as the market mood was fragile amid intensifying coronavirus spread on both sides of the Atlantic. Therefore, the US economic aid package passed by the Senate failed to lift the sentiment, with the Asian stocks a mixed bag while the US equity futures dropped along with the Treasury yields. Gold prices failed to take advantage and meandered in lows near $1620. The US dollar remained under pressure across the board amid easing funding stress on the US fiscal and monetary measures. USD/JPY slipped below 111.00 amid widespread risk aversion while the Aussie attempted a recovery above 0.5900 following a sharp drop in early Asia. The Kiwi also recovered some ground above 0.58 but wasn’t out of the woods yet. Meanwhile, USD/CAD bounced to 1.4270 amid oil-price sell-off. EUR/USD benefited the most from broad US dollar weakness amid some positive news coming out Italy. The cable, on the other hand, traded weaker below 1.1900 amid a solid surge in the number of new infections in the UK.