Rupee appreciated to 82.80 vs the US dollar on Thursday, a change of one paise from its previous close, as greenback traded below 104 against six peers. Jump in global crude oil benchmarks, however, put pressure on the currency.
The dollar index — which measures the American currency against the yen, the pound, the Canadian dollar, the Swedish krona, the Swiss franc and the euro — fell and was last trading 0.2 percent lower at 103.6.
Crude oil prices gained on Thursday for the fourth straight session amid US crude, heating oil and jet fuel stocks seen tight. Brent crude futures rose 0.4 percent to $82.6 per barrel at the last count. WTI futures too rose 0.4 percent to $78.6 per barrel at the last count.
"RBI could intervene in the spot market to curb any upside movement in the pair. The USD/INR forward premium added to last week's surge with the one-year implied yield rising to 2.1 percent, the highest in over three weeks, which could attract more dollar selling from exporters," said Amit Pabari, Managing Director at CR Forex.
"It will be hard for the USD-INR pair to cross the 83.00 mark tracking stronger EM currencies and weaker USD. And thus we can expect a range of 82 to 83 over the next few days with a higher possibility of back to a fair value of 81.50-81.00 over the next 1 to 1.5 months," Pabari added.
Indian equity benchmarks BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 started Thursday's session higher tracing global cues.
First Published: Dec 22, 2022 9:09 AM IST
