 "rupee")
The rupee appreciated 26 paisa on Friday to settle at 82.95 a dollar as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervened in the foreign exchange market to sell dollars, dealers said.
“We suspect the RBI to have intervened today. Although the central bank has never proclaimed a comfortable level for the currency, 83-83.5 seems to be a corridor where the RBI has consistently intervened in the recent past. Falling foreign exchange reserves during two-three weeks confirms the same,” said Hitesh Jain, strategist, Institutional Equities Research at YES Securities.
The Indian unit appreciated by 0.32 per cent on Friday, registering a three-month high intraday rise after June 14. However, during the week, the local currency depreciated by 0.2 per cent.
The rupee had hit an all-time closing low of 83.21 per US dollar on Thursday, as persistent concerns about a slowdown in China and the possibility of further rate hikes in the US weighed heavily on investors’ minds.
The demand at the weekly government bond auction was softer than expected due to lack of significant domestic cues, the dealers said. Market participants maintained caution ahead of the RBI’s review on incremental cash reserve ratio.
The RBI set the cut-off yield on the five-year, 10-year, and 30-year bond at 7.19 per cent, 7.16 per cent, and 7.34 per cent, respectively.
Meanwhile, banks parked Rs 18,670 crore against the notified amount of Rs 50,000 crore at a weighted average rate of 6.49 per cent at the RBI’s 14-day variable rate reverse repo auction.
