- Rupee registered a three-day slump
- US economy adds 528k jobs betting market expectation
- US recession fears fade
- Light economic calendar to start the week
Indian Rupee registered a three-day sell-off against the greenback despite RBI’s rate hike last Friday. At the foreign exchange market, the value of the Rupee depreciated by 26 paise on Friday settling down -0.33% at 79.35 against the US dollar. The USD/INR exchange rate was seen trading on Monday within a trading range of 79.30 and 79.56.
Currently, one US dollar buys 79.54 rupees, up 0.24% as of 7:53 AM UTC.
In the US, hiring surged with employers adding 528k jobs in July, the Labor Department said on Friday. The market expectation was for gains of 250k new jobs, down from the 372k jobs added in June.
At the same time, the unemployment rate fell to 3.5% from 3.6% – the lowest level in nearly 50 years, defying the chances of a US recession.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of major currencies, settled up +0.78% at 106.57.
Elsewhere, according to the National Stock Exchange of India, domestic institutional investors were net sellers in the local equity market worth Rs 496 crore while foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth Rs 1,606 crore. The domestic benchmark equity index NIFTY 50 settled up 0.09% at 17,397.50 on Friday.
The Indian 10-year government bond yield was seen up 0.64% at 7.347%.
With a light economic calendar ahead in both the US and India, the USD to INR pair will take its cues from the market sentiment.
