Rupee ended off lows, Pound up vs. Dollar
Wednesday,
13-Oct-2021
04:00 PM (IST)
The Indian rupee recouped the losses and ended the session off lows at 75.3650/3750 levels after touching the low of 75.52/53 levels boosted by local equities scaling fresh peaks and a pullback in the dollar index. After opening at 75.3150/3250 levels, rupee dropped to 75.52/53 levels today on persistent greenback demand from oil companies. Rupee traded in the range of 75.1950-75.52 levels today. Meanwhile, Asian currencies gained and the dollar index was down 0.2% to 94.34 ahead of data projected to show that consumer prices in the U.S. rose by 5.3% year-on-year last month. India's federal government bond yields settled lower today as a sharper-than-expected fall in inflation eased some concerns about normalisation of the central bank's ultra-loose monetary policy. Benchmark indices extended their record breaking rally into fifth straight session on Wednesday. BSE Sensex ended the session at 60,737 levels, up 453 points or 0.75 per cent. The Nifty50 index, on the other hand, closed above the 18,100-mark at 18,162 level, up 170 points or 0.94 per cent. In the forward segment 1mth, 3mth and 6mth annualized premia ended the day at 3.38%, 3.84% and 4.30% respectively.
Sterling edged higher on Wednesday as traders assessed that data showing the British economy grew slightly below consensus in August was not enough to dent expectations the Bank of England (BoE) will increase rates. Britain’s economy grew 0.4% in August, leaving it just 0.8% smaller than it was in February 2020, the Office for National Statistics said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast monthly gross domestic product growth of 0.5% for August. The BoE, facing a jump in inflation, looks set to be the first major central bank to raise interest rates since the beginning of the pandemic. Investors are betting on a rise to 0.15% by December. The pound hit a two-week high of $1.3674 against the dollar on Monday after BoE governor Andrew Bailey stressed the need to prevent inflation from becoming permanently embedded, and fellow policymaker Michael Saunders said households must brace for “significantly earlier” interest rate rises. Sterling rose 0.3% versus the dollar to $1.3639. Against the euro, it edged 0.1% higher at 84.75, not far from a two-month high touched this week. But some analysts have pointed out that sterling had failed to react to renewed post-Brexit disputes over the Northern Irish protocol, which governs trade in the province. British Brexit minister David Frost told the EU on Tuesday that significant changes to post-Brexit rules were the only option to draw the poison from their relations. The European Commission will later in the day put to Britain a package of measures to ease the transit of goods to Northern Ireland.
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