Rupee jumps 50 paise against US dollar

Mumbai, Nov 24 (PTI) The rupee rebounded sharply by 50 paise to settle at 89.16 against the greenback on Monday, due to US dollar selling by banks and importers amid a dip in global crude oil prices.

Besides, suspected RBI intervention also supported the domestic currency, forex traders said.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened strong at 89.46 and moved in the range of 89.05 and 89.50 during the day. It eventually settled at 89.16, up 50 paise from its previous close.

The rupee had plunged 98 paise to close at its lifetime low of 89.66 against the US dollar on Friday.

In the steepest fall in over three years, the domestic currency nosedived 98 paise to finally settle at 89.66 against the American currency. The previous biggest one-day fall was recorded at 99 paise against the dollar on February 24, 2022.

"The rupee gained the most among the Asian currencies on likely intervention from the central bank and MSCI index rebalancing related flows. However, the trend and bias remain weak for the rupee amid foreign fund outflows, widening trade deficit and stronger dollar index against the major currencies," Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities, said.

Meanwhile, Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, slipped 0.78 per cent to USD 62.07 per barrel in futures trade.

"The RBI opened the dollar lower at 89.15 by selling in NDF (non-deliverable forward) markets... and kept it in a range of 89-89.30 for the day as the market was wary of RBI selling," Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director, Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, said.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was marginally down by 0.02 per cent at 100.15.

On the domestic equity market front, the Sensex declined 331.21 points to settle at 84,900.71, while Nifty fell 108.65 points to 25,959.50.

Foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 4,171.75 crore on a net basis on Monday, according to exchange data.

India's forex reserves jumped USD 5.543 billion to USD 692.576 billion during the week ended November 14 due to a steep increase in the value of gold reserves, the RBI said on Friday. PTI BAL BAL