MUMBAI: The Indian rupee was largely unchanged on Tuesday, mirroring most of its Asian peers, with traders expecting the local unit to trade with a slightly negative bias during the day’s session.
The rupee was at 83.03 against the US dollar as of 10:00 a.m. IST, barely changed from its close of 83.0550 in the previous session.
The dollar index was last quoted at 104.4, near its highest level since mid-November, after data showed US services sector growth picked up more than expected in January.
Most Asian currencies were rangebound.
The data also boosted US bond yields, with the 10-year Treasury yield jumping 13 basis points (bps) on Monday to a peak of 4.17% before edging lower in Asia hours.
The rupee is back in its long-standing range, so intra-day moves are likely to be subdued, a foreign exchange trader at a state-run bank said. Local oil companies were seen bidding for dollars in early trading, the trader added.
Indian rupee to weaken after Fed March rate odds fall further on Powell, US jobs report
The strong services sector data coming on the heels of a blowout US jobs report has also prompted investors to pare bets on early rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
The odds of the Fed keeping rates unchanged in May rose to 35%, from about 12% a week earlier, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.
“Any upticks towards 83.10-83.20 shall remain a selling opportunity (on the dollar-rupee pair),” said Amit Pabari, managing director at FX advisory firm CR Forex.
Meanwhile, rupee forward premiums recovered slightly, with the 1-year implied yield rising 2 bps to 1.78% after dropping to its lowest level in a month on Monday.
Investors will now be keeping an eye on the outcome of the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy decision on Thursday.
The central bank is widely expected to keep rates unchanged.
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