Indian rupee appreciated by 13 paise to end at 67.14 against the US dollar on Wednesday at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market as dollar witnessed selling by banks and exporters. The local currency opened weak against the US dollar and dropped 6 paise to trade at 67.33 as demand for dollar rose among importers and banks. It had closed with gains of 8 paise at 67.27 on Tuesday. Rupee’s movement could further be directed by the US Federal Reserve meeting ending tonight.
“Hopes for a large fiscal and monetary stimulus from Japan helped EM currencies rally against the US Dollar. Tonight US Fed meeting may set the near term path for Rupee. However, a bigger event is lined up ahead, in the form of Bank of Japan monetary policy. Over the near term we expect a range of 66.80/67.00 and 67.45/50 levels on spot. Indian Rupee is expected to appreciate against Yen and Pound,” Anindya Banerjee, currency analyst, Kotak Securities said.
Emerging currencies rallied on hopes of significant monetary stimulus by the Bank of Japan amid reports that government will soon unveil a $255 billion stimulus package. US Federal two-day meet was also driving the markets world over . Traders do not expect the Fed to raise interest rates, but will watch for indications on the timing of the next hike.
Domestic stock markets remained in positive terrain after central and state governments consensus on key issues in the long-pending GST bill. The BSE Sensex settled 47.81 points or 0.17 per cent higher at 28,024.33, while NSE Nifty ended at 8,615.80 with a gain of 25.15 points or 0.29 per cent.
The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 67.23 and for Euro stood at 73.88 on July 27, 2016. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 63.57, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 88.30.
