- Indian Rupee (INR) rises as Nifty 50 hits record high
- Foreign equity inflows reached a record level in December
- US Dollar (USD) falls but remains near a two-week high
- US ADP payrolls and jobless claims beat forecasts
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is falling after 4-days of losses. The pair rose +0.01% in the previous session, settling on Wednesday at 83.28. At 17:00 UTC, USD/INR trades -0.05% at 83.24 and trades in a range of 83.20 to 83.42.
The Indian rupee was rising after falling across most of the week, capitalising on the weaker U.S. dollar.
Games came as the nifty 50 rose to a record high, boosted by record monthly purchases of Indian equities by foreign portfolio investors.
According to national security depositary data, FPI made record purchases totaling 661.35 billion rupees, equivalent to around 8 billion U.S. dollars, in December.
Both the Nifty 50 and the Sensex rose to a fresh all-time high.
The surge in interest comes amid lower US bond yields and expectations of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
The US Dollar is falling across the board. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies, trades -0.14% at the time of writing at 102.35, snapping a 5-day losing streak.
The US dollar is edging lower but continues to trade around a two-week high against its major peers.
As investors digest the latest jobs data Ahead of tomorrow’s nonfarm payroll report.
ADP private payrolls rose by 164,000, well above the 115,000 that economists expected round-up from 103,000 in November.
Meanwhile, jobless claims were also stronger than expected, rising by 202,000 after an upwardly revised 220,000 last week this month, the lowest number since October, pointing to tightness in the labor market.
Meanwhile, the challenger job cuts pointed to 34,800, a 24% monthly drop and a 20% decline from December 2022.
The data points to a resilient labor market ahead of tomorrow’s nonfarm payroll report, which is expected to show that job creation was 170,000 in December, down slightly from 199,000 in November.
Data comes after the minutes of the latest Fed meeting showed that the Federal Reserve believed that peak rates had been reached and that rate cuts would begin in 2024 but gave no clues over the timing of when the rate cuts may commence.
