The rupee declined by 8 paises to 86.96 against the US dollar as foreign portfolio investments remained negative and the dollar index was strong. The forex traders observed a bearish trend on the USD/INR range because foreign investors kept on selling assets in the domestic market and the support of RBI was decreasing. At the interbank foreign exchange, therefore, the rupee opened at 86.94, noted an intraday high of 86.91 and a low of 86.98 before settling at 86.96, lower than the previous close. The rupee had already depreciated by 17 paise to 86.88 against the dollar on Monday. The analysts said that the depreciation of the rupee was due to widening of the trade gap. The exports of the country rose by 2.38% year on year to $36.43 billion in January while imports grew by 10.28% to $59.42 billion due to rise in import of gold. The trade deficit expanded to $22.99 billion. However, the dollar index was up by 0.35% to 106.95, while Brent crude increased by 0.77% to $75.80 per barrel. The domestic bench marks too suffered small losses; the Sensex decreased by 29.47 points to close at 75,967.39 and the Nifty fell by 14.20 points to close at 22,945.30. The equities came under pressure as FIIs pulled out Rs 3,937.83 crore from the Indian markets on Monday. They predicted that the rupee will continue to trade in the negative zone owing to the weak domestic bourses and FII’s negative fund flow though the RBI may come to the rescue and cap the losses. The USD-INR spot price is expected to range between 86.75 and 87.20.
Rupee Drops 8 Paise Again
