Due to losses in domestic equities and a strong dollar in international markets, the rupee fell 4 paise to 83.27 (provisional) against the US dollar on Friday. Forex dealers stated that the rupee was able to limit losses due to recent FII inflows and crude oil prices that were trading close to four-month lows. Following overnight declines in the price of crude oil, the rupee began flat versus the US dollar at 83.23 on the interbank foreign exchange market. In the day trade, the local unit fluctuated within a narrow range of 83.23 to 83.28.
The dollar index, which measures the strength of the US dollar relative to a basket of six other currencies, peaked at 104.53 and then declined by 0.11 percent to close at 104.23 in afternoon trading. The world oil benchmark, Brent crude futures, bounced back from losses on the previous day to trade up 0.54% at USD 77.84 per barrel.
The futures for Indian basket oil were down 0.85% at USD 83.09 a barrel. Thursday saw a five percent decline in Brent crude futures for December delivery, reaching a four-month low of USD 77.42 per barrel as concerns over the world’s oil demand arose following the US’s dismal jobs report.
Regarding the domestic equities market, volatile trading saw the Nifty drop 33.40 points to settle at 19,731.80, while the BSE Sensex fell 187.75 points to settle at 65,794.73. Exchange data indicates that on Thursday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased shares valued at Rs 957.25 crore, making them net purchasers in the capital market.
