Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Monday clocked its biggest single-day rise in 12 weeks by surging 42 paise at 74.65 against the US dollar in line with positive regional currencies and buoyant domestic equities.
At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened strong at 74.97 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 74.60 and a low of 75.05. It finally settled at 74.65, a rise of 42 paise over its previous close.
In the previous session, the rupee had settled at 75.07 against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday presented the Economic Survey 2021-22.
As per the pre-Budget Economic Survey, India’s economy is expected to grow by 8-8.5 per cent in the fiscal beginning April 1 and is well placed to meet the future challenges on the back of widespread vaccine coverage, supply-side reforms and easing of regulations.
“The Indian rupee appreciated in line with regional currencies as risk sentiments recovered. Domestic benchmark index Sensex rose more than a percentage,” said Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.
The market is currently pricing in foreign inflows from the inclusion of Indian sovereign in the global bond index. Though, surging oil prices add to worries over inflation and could change the fiscal maths in Tuesday’s Union Budget announcement, Parmar said.
“USDINR is expected to trade volatile within the range of 74.30 to 75.50 in the coming days,” Parmar noted.
This is the second straight session of gain for the local unit, during which it has added 47 paise against the American currency.
On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 813.94 points or 1.42 per cent higher at 58,014.17, while the broader NSE Nifty jumped 237.90 points or 1.39 per cent to 17,339.85.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against the basket of six currencies, fell 0.27 per cent to 97.00.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.87 per cent higher at USD 90.81 per barrel.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Friday, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 5,045.34 crore, as per stock exchange data.