MUMBAI: The Indian rupee closed lower for the week but managed to outperform its Asian peers, thanks to foreign inflows and the absence of dollar demand from oil companies, traders and market participants said on Friday.
The rupee ended trading at 82.0350 per U.S. dollar compared to 91.95 in the previous session, posting a decline of 0.13% on the week.
In comparison, the offshore Chinese yuan was down 1.3% this week, the Korean won lost 2.5% and the Thai baht fell 1.7%.
“The main reason (for the rupee’s outperformance) was the inflows from various sources, and oil (related dollar demand) was absent,” said Anil Bhansali, head of treasury at Finrex Treasury Advisors.
Foreign investors had put about $1.4 billion into Indian equities between Monday and Wednesday, according to data from the National Securities Depository Limited. The numbers for Thursday were provisional while they were yet to be released for Friday.
Indian rupee rises, but runs into familiar resistance; GBP/INR in focus
This week, the rupee traded in a narrow 81.89-82.1675 range amid the selloff in Asia. The near-term implied volatility on the rupee continued to be low, with the 1-month near 3%.
Other Asian currencies were pressured by concerns over China’s economic outlook and hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. In his testimony to U.S. lawmakers, Powell reiterated that the Fed remained committed to bringing inflation back to 2% levels and that more rate increases were “a pretty good guess.”
U.S. yields and the dollar index rose this week. Rupee forward premiums were up, with traders saying that the Reserve Bank of India was likely conducting sell/buy swaps via public sector banks.
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