Rupee volatile today; rises marginally to 73.46 per dollar despite weak equities

Indian rupee, the currency benchmark witnessed high volatility in Friday's opening deals, amid heavy selling in global as well as domestic equities and a rebound in the American currency.

Despite weak cues, the domestic unit opened on a strong note at 73.38 against the US dollar at the interbank forex market and gained further to quote at 73.35 per dollar.

The local unit, however, pared the initial gains and was trading at 73.46, up by just 1 paisa over its previous close of 73.47 per dollar.

On Thursday, the the domestic currency posted single-biggest session fall against the US dollar since May 4 and slumped 44 paise to close at 73.47 against the US dollar amid rise in demand for the American currency and weak momentum in the domestic equities.

Forex traders said heavy selling in domestic equity markets and a rebound in American currency weighed on the rupee.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.04 per cent to 92.77.

On the domestic equity market front, Sensex and Nifty dropped over 1%, amid weakness Asian markets that fell tracking overnight plunge in the US. The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex was trading 464.61 points lower at 38,526.33, and the broader NSE Nifty fell 130.30 points to 11,397.15.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 7.72 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 120.08 crore in the Indian equity market on 3 September 2020, provisional data showed.

Oil price closed slightly lower yesterday as US unemployment data, which was below estimates, raised concerns over the speed of economic recovery. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.93 per cent to USD 43.66 per barrel.

Worldwide, there were 264 lakh confirmed cases and 8.73 lakh deaths from COVID-19 outbreak. Meanwhile, India's death toll from COVID-19 infections rose to 68,569 and total coronavirus cases to 39.36 lakh as of Friday.

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