The rupee depreciated by 10 paise to 79.67 against the US dollar in opening trade on Monday, even as the equity market opened on a positive note. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 79.66 against the greenback, then fell to 79.67, registering a decline of 10 paise over its last close. In initial deals, the local unit also touched 79.64 against the dollar. On Friday, the rupee appreciated by 12 paise to close at 79.57 against the American currency.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.23 per cent to 108.75. The global oil benchmark Brent crude futures fell 1.49 per cent to USD 91.46 per barrel. “Markets now await India’s August inflation data, which is likely to trend higher to 6.90 per cent from 6.71 per cent in July, as per a poll, adding pressure on RBI to hike interest rates more aggressively in coming months,” said Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities. The dollar index eased further on Monday as investors await cues from US CPI data this week.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading 243.2 points or 0.41 per cent higher at 60,036.34, while the broader NSE Nifty was up 76.55 points or 0.43 per cent to 17,909.90. Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market on Friday as they purchased shares worth Rs 2,132.42 crore, as per exchange data.
Meanwhile, the country’s foreign exchange reserves declined by USD 3.007 billion to USD 561.046 billion in the week ended August 26, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed.
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