Rupee rebounds 16 paise to 69.14 against US Dollar on robust foreign fund inflows

The rupee appreciated by 16 paise on Friday to close at 69.14 against the US dollar on persistent foreign fund inflows and heavy buying in domestic equities. A positive trend in the global equity markets, driven by optimism surrounding the ongoing US-China trade talks, also propped up the rupee, analysts said.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market, the domestic unit opened strong at 69.20 but surrendered the gains to slip to a low of 69.32. However, it clawed back lost ground and finally ended at 69.14, up 16 paise over its previous close. On Thursday, the rupee had slumped 42 paise to end at 69.30. However, during the week, the domestic currency lost 19 paise.

The rupee has gained over 2 per cent in March, HDFC Securities Head PCG & Capital Markets Strategy V K Sharma said. He further said "the central bank has intervened to drain dollars that banks had acquired before the RBI's foreign-exchange swap earlier this week, that also supported rupee appreciation".

Under the rupee-dollar swap auction conducted Tuesday, the Reserve Bank received bids for USD 16.31 billion, against the notified amount of USD 5 billion.Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, gained 0.11 per cent to 97.30 on optimism surrounding the US-China trade negotiations.

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Trade talks with China are progressing "very well", US President Donald Trump said, as top negotiators from the two countries Thursday began another round of meetings to resolve their tariff war.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net buyers in the capital markets, putting in a hefty Rs 3,594.51 crore Thursday, as per provisional data. Meanwhile, brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 1.12 per cent to trade at USD 68.58 per barrel.

The 30-share BSE Sensex settled at 38,672.91, recording a rise of 127.19, or 0.33 per cent, while the 50-share NSE Nifty closed at 11,623.90, higher by 53.90 points, or 0.47 per cent.

The Financial Benchmark India Private Ltd (FBIL) set the reference rate for the rupee/dollar at 69.1713 and for rupee/euro at 77.7024. The reference rate for rupee/British pound was fixed at 90.4756 and for rupee/100 Japanese yen at 62.52.