Rupee falls 15 paise to 80.93 against U.S. dollar

The rupee witnessed heavy volatility in early trade on November 14 and depreciated 15 paise to 80.93 against the U.S. dollar in line with a muted trend in domestic equities.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened on a strong note at 80.53 against the dollar, then pared the gains to quote at 80.93, registering a loss of 15 paise over its previous close.

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On November 11, the rupee appreciated by 62 paise to close at 80.78 against the dollar.

“We expect the rupee to trade in 80.40-80.70 range intra-day with appreciation bias. A test of 80.10 in this swing is possible. We are likely to see some more inflows till month end into domestic equities on MSCI index re-balancing,” IFA Global Research Academy said in a research note.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, advanced 0.49% to 106.80.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.28% to $96.26 per barrel.

In the domestic equity market, the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading 21.62 points or 0.03% down at 61,773.42, and the broader NSE Nifty was trading up 19.80 points or 0.11% to 18,369.50.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers in capital markets as they purchased shares worth ₹3,958.23 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, India’s foreign exchange reserves dropped by $1.087 billion to $529.994 billion in the week ended November 4 on a sharp decline in gold reserves, the Reserve Bank said on Friday.

On the domestic macroeconomic front, India’s industrial production expanded by 3.1% in September, boosted by manufacturing, mining and power sectors, according to official data released on Friday.

Factory output had contracted by 0.7% in the preceding month (August 2022). It grew by 2.2% in July this year.