Rupee slips 8 paise to 73.21 per US dollar despite positive equities

Indian rupee, the currency benchmark depreciated 8 paise to 73.21 per dollar in the Indian commodity market on Monday even as the domestic equity market was trading with significant gains.

The local unit opened at 73.16 at the interbank forex market  and later fell by 8 paise to 73.21 against the US dollar.

On Thursday, rupee had closed 63 paise higher at 73.13 per dollar.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.12 per cent to 93.72. The dollar index was down 0.1% against the basket of six currencies amid negotiations over a new US coronavirus relief aid bill and post news of Trump testing positive for Covid-19.

Sugandha Sachdeva VP-Metals, Energy & Currency Research, Religare Broking said, "We are expecting the rupee to trade with a slight appreciation bias in the near-term, given the persistent dollar inflows in the domestic market and a healthy current account surplus. The market will be watching developments around the next round of U.S. fiscal stimulus packages, without which the upbeat risk appetite may not be able to sustain for very long."

On the domestic equity market front, The 30-share benchmark rose 390 points higher to 39,086 and Nifty gained by 96 points to 11,515.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,632.25 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 259.46 crore in the Indian equity market on 1 October 2020, provisional data showed.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 2.14 per cent to USD 40.11 per barrel. Oil price fell in the earlier session after news that Trump tested positive for COVID-19 and as rising global crude output raised fears of price decline.

Worldwide, there were 354 lakh confirmed cases and 10.41 lakh deaths from COVID-19 outbreak. India's COVID-19 caseload breached the 66-lakh mark and the death toll from COVID-19 infections rose to 10.2 lakh, as of today.

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