The country's foreign exchange reserves declined by $7.541 billion to $572.712 billion in the week ended July 15 as the Reserve Bank continued to intervene in the market to curb the fall of the rupee. In the previous week ended July 8, the reserves shrunk by $8.06 billion to $580.25 billion, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed on Friday. On Friday, the rupee fell by 5 paise to close at 79.90 against the US dollar.
What the reserves offer for now is improved import coverage of about 13 months, almost double the 2013 level of less than seven months. And, ammunition to arrest a rapid rupee slide, says Anup Roy.
Tuesday's top gainers included SBI, UltraTech Cement, HDFC Bank, L&T, Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki and Kotak Bank.
With inflation remaining at elevated levels, central banks around the world, including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will kill excess demand in economy over the next six to eight months, sources in the know said. They also indicated that there could be a rate hike in June, when the inflation forecast for the current financial year would be raised. The RBI, the sources said, might announce more steps such as raising the limit on held-to-maturity (HTM) bonds to support government borrowings but might not come out with any further quantitative easing GSAP (Government Securities Acquisition Programme) measures.
There has been a stellar rise for the Indian markets this far in calendar year 2021 (CY21) with the S&P BSE Sensex surging over 19 per cent. The gain in mid-and small-cap indices on the BSE has been sharper with both these indexes surging around 38 per cent and 54 per cent, respectively during this period. Rampant spread of Covid pandemic's Delta variant and the ensuing lockdown and mobility curbs across India, rising prices key commodities, including crude oil and its impact on inflation, possibility of tightening of policy stance by major global central banks, especially the US Federal Reserve (US Fed) have been some of the key headwinds that the markets successfully negotiated during this period.
The rupee extended its fall for the fourth consecutive day by losing another 6 paise to hit a fresh one-month low of 62.31.
Falling for the first time in three days, the rupee washed out initial gains to end four paise lower at 62.57 today on caution ahead of US non-farm payrolls data and sustained capital outflows from Indian markets.
On the Sensex chart, index heavyweight HDFC rallied over 8 per cent. Other prominent gainers were IndusInd Bank, Mahindra and Mahindra, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank and Ultratech Cement.
Axis Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, surging around 5 per cent, followed by HDFC twins, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance and SBI. NSE Nifty zoomed 274.20 points to end at 14,982.
Forex dealers said besides strong demand for the American currency from importers, capital outflows mainly weighed on the domestic currency.
The rupee on Friday again breached the 56-mark by losing 31 paise to 56.15 against the US dollar in early trade to hit a fresh one-week low, due to strong demand for the American currency from banks and importers.
The rupee had gained 18 paise to 55.43 against the dollar in Monday's trade.
The US dollar surged to fresh one-year high after the Fed chief's testimony to the US Senate on Wednesday bolstered the expectations of interest rate hikes, though gradually.
The country's foreign exchange reserves surged by $58.38 billion in April-September 2021 to $635.36 billion, says an RBI report released on Wednesday. The forex reserves were at $576.98 billion at end-March 2021. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) publishes half-yearly reports on management of foreign exchange reserves.
Traders will watch out for any Reserve Bank of India intervention to prevent the rupee from weakening further.
In International market, the US dollar fell further in early trade on Monday, losing further steam in the wake of Friday's weaker-than-expected economic-growth number and caution ahead of what is expected to be a busy week of data and monetary-policy decisions.
The rupee has recovered to trade at 63 level after hitting its life-time low of 68.85 towards August-end.
The dollar was firm against some global currencies.
Rupee gained on fresh selling of dollars by banks ahead of the RBI policy meeting.
Rupee hits 2-month low, down 21 paise against dollar.
The rupee has also risen during the period and is now trading below the crucial Rs 60 against the dollar mark.
Rupee rises by 16 paise against dollar on fresh selling.
Maruti, Axis Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance also finished with gains. NSE Nifty rallied 203.65 points to 11,095.25.
Kotak Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 3 per cent, followed by IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Maruti and SBI.
Ultratech Cement, TCS, Kotak Mahindra, M&M, Maruti, IndusInd Bank and Bajaj Auto were the prominent gainers. On the other hand, ICICI Bank, Nestle, Asian Paints, ONGC and ITC ended in the red.
Selling of dollars by exporters helped the Indian currency appreciate.
Brokers said a weak trend in euro in overseas markets also dampened the rupee sentiment against the US dollar.
Titan was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, climbing over 4 per cent, followed by Bajaj Auto, Maruti, Reliance Industries, ONGC and UltraTech Cement.
Tech Mahindra was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, spurting around 3 per cent, followed by Titan, Nestle India, HUL, ITC, Asian Paints and HDFC duo. On the other hand, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, M&M and Sun Pharma were among the laggards. NSE Nifty rose 25.15 points or 0.22 per cent to 11,247.55.
The broader markets ended firm with mid-caps and small-caps gaining 1.5 per cent on the BSE.
In the Sensex pack, HDFC, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, Titan, Asian Paints, Mahindra and Mahindra and TCS were the prominent gainers. On the other hand, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, Tech Mahindra and SBI were among the major laggards. On the other hand, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, HUL, Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank were trading in the red.
Bharti Airtel was the top loser in the Sensex pack, falling over 3 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finance, PowerGrid, SBI, HDFC Bank and Sun Pharma. HCL Tech was the top gainer, rallying around 10 per cent. TCS, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Titan too ended with up to 5 per cent gains.
Today, they can't meet even the piffling capital norm set by Mint Road - Rs 5 crore for partnerships and Rs 10 crore for public and private firms in this line of business. Bulk of the trades are put through e-platform offerings of Reuters, Bloomberg, JPMorgan, Barclays or Deutsche Bank. And they have the web-based FXall, FXconnect, Atriax, Hotspotfx and LavaFX for company.
ICICI Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, jumping over 5 per cent, followed by Axis Bank, Nestle India, SBI, HDFC, ONGC and Kotak Bank. On the other hand, Bajaj Auto, TCS, Bharti Airtel, M&M and Maruti were among the laggards.
In the global market, dollar fell against most of its rivals on Monday.
The dollar index surged to multi-year high.
The rupee had gained 14 paise to close at 52.87 on Tuesday on fresh dollar selling by exporters on the back of sluggish movements of the US currency overseas.
Equity benchmark Sensex tanked over 1,000 points in the opening session on Friday tracking losses in index majors ICICI Bank, HDFC twins and Reliance Industries amid a negative trend in global markets.
With Indian stocks under pressure, the rupee tumbled to a low of 54.89 on emergence of dollar demand from importers and some banks on expectations of further rise in dollar overseas.
The rupee had lost 23 paise to end at 54.09 in Tuesday's trade due to month-end dollar demand.
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