Rupee falls 15 paise to 80.93 against US dollar

The rupee witnessed heavy volatility in early trade on Monday and depreciated 15 paise to 80.93 against the US dollar in line with a muted trend in domestic equities.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened on a strong note at 80.53 against the dollar, then pared the gains to quote at 80.93, registering a loss of 15 paise over its previous close.

On Friday, the rupee appreciated by 62 paise to close at 80.78 against the dollar.

“We expect the rupee to trade in 80.40-80.70 range intra-day with appreciation bias. A test of 80.10 in this swing is possible. We are likely to see some more inflows till month end into domestic equities on MSCI index re-balancing,” IFA Global Research Academy said in a research note.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, advanced 0.49 per cent to 106.80.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.28 per cent to USD 96.26 per barrel.

In the domestic equity market, the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading 21.62 points or 0.03 per cent down at 61,773.42, and the broader NSE Nifty was trading up 19.80 points or 0.11 per cent to 18,369.50.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers in capital markets as they purchased shares worth Rs 3,958.23 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, India’s foreign exchange reserves dropped by USD 1.087 billion to USD 529.994 billion in the week ended November 4 on a sharp decline in gold reserves, the Reserve Bank said on Friday.

On the domestic macroeconomic front, India’s industrial production expanded by 3.1 per cent in September, boosted by manufacturing, mining and power sectors, according to official data released on Friday.

Factory output had contracted by 0.7 per cent in the preceding month (August 2022). It grew by 2.2 per cent in July this year.