- Rupee eyes 80 per dollar
- US dollar edges higher following Fed’s minutes
- US Jobless claims fell for the first time in 3 weeks
- Foreign investors dumping Indian shares
Indian Rupee weakens continue on track for the third week of losses mirroring the sell-off in global risk assets. At the foreign exchange market, the value of the Rupee depreciated by 37 paise on Thursday settling down -0.47% at 79.71 against the US dollar. The USD/INR exchange rate was seen trading on Friday morning trade within a trading range of 79.44 and 79.76.
Currently, one US dollar buys 79.70 rupees, down -0.02% as of 7:00 AM UTC.
The US dollar continued to climb after an initial mixed reaction to the latest FOMC minutes. Fed’s minutes revealed that some policy members saw “little evidence” for inflation to peak helping lift the greenback.
The greenback was also tracking higher Treasury yields in the US which are pricing in the interest rates to stay higher for longer.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of major currencies settled up +0.77% at 107.49.
Meanwhile, the US weekly jobless claims unexpectedly fell by 2,000 to 250k compared to a downward revised 252k previous reading, the Labor Department data showed on Thursday.
Elsewhere, according to the National Stock Exchange of India, domestic institutional investors were net buyers in the local equity market worth Rs 470.79 crore while foreign portfolio investors turned net sellers for the first time this week, selling shares worth Rs 1,706 crore.
The domestic benchmark equity index NIFTY 50 settled up 0.07% at 17,956.50 on Thursday.
The Indian 10-year government bond yield was seen up 0.32% at 7.265%.
