Indian rupee, the local currency depreciated 11 paise to 73.68 per US dollar on Thursday's opening trade, tracking muted domestic equities and a rebound in the American currency.
The domestic unit opened at 73.68 per US dollar at the interbank forex market, falling by 11 paise over its previous close. On Wednesday, the rupee strengthened by another 3 paise to mark its seven-week high of 73.57 per US dollar, supported by foreign portfolio flows and positive domestic equities.
Reliance Securities said in a research note," A rebound of the US dollar, Brexit deal impasse and the Reserve Bank of India's presence in the market weighed on investor sentiments. On the other hand, dollar inflows into local equities and strong Chinese yuan could keep depreciation bias limited."
Meanwhile, the dollar index fell 0.10 per cent to 90.99 against a basket of six currencies. US dollar rebounded against the basket of currencies amid lack of progress over the additional US fiscal stimulus to ease the economic blow from the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the domestic equity market front, market indices reversed trend on Thursday, in line with global equities and fell on to bearish territory, amid profit booking. After five days of consecutive bullish rally, Sensex traded 185 points lower at 45,921 and Nifty fell by 59 points to 13,469.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 3,564.23 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 2,493.10 crore in the Indian equity market on 9 December, provisional data showed.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.47 per cent to USD 49.09 per barrel, as investors reacted to the jump in US crude stockpiles giving less importance to the possibility of demand pick-up post vaccine rollout.
On Wednesday, WTI Crude ended marginally lower by 0.18 percent to close at $45.5 per barrel after witnessing a sudden spike in the U.S. Crude inventory levels overshadowed the optimism infused by the potential vaccine.
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