The INR rallied as much as 21 paise on Monday to hit a fresh one-month high against the US dollar as Brent crude oil price traded below the $77 per barrel mark on expectations of higher supplies from OPEC (The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries). A 300-point plus gain in the benchmark Sensex also lifted the sentiments in the forex market along with the record output from the United States. The domestic currency got appreciated for the fourth straight day on Monday against the US dollar. Today’s upmove in the Indian rupee was unaffected by the relative strongness in the US dollar which is rising on upbeat US jobs report.
The rupee added about 21 paise to 66.85 apiece US dollar at the interbank foreign exchange market on Monday. Investors are keenly for the outcome of the Reserve Bank of India’s second bi-monthly monetary policy committee meeting for the financial year 2018-2019. Beginning today, 4 June, RBI’s MPC will conclude on 6 June 2018. This is the first time when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee meeting has been extended to three days. A higher opening of the domestic equity market supported the rupee but the US dollar’s strength against some currencies overseas after the release of an upbeat US jobs report capped the gains, PTI reported citing an unidentified forex dealer.
The Reserve Bank of India has fixed reference rates of 67.1840, 89.1397, 78.4104 and 61.5600 against the US dollar, Great Britain pound, Euro and Japanese yen, respectively. Earlier on Friday last week, the rupee surged 35 paise apiece US dollar to end at 67.06 after fourth-quarter GDP growth came at 7.7%.
Meanwhile, crude oil prices declined for the second consecutive session on Monday. According to a Reuters report, Saudi Arabia, the effective leader of OPEC and Russia have discussed boosting output to compensate for supply losses from Venezuela and to address concerns about the impact of US sanctions on Iranian output. Brent crude fell 0.43% to 76.46 a barrel while WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude dipped 0.12% at 65.73 per barrel.
