Rupee jumps 46 paise to close at 89.20 against U.S. dollar

The rupee rebounded sharply by 46 paise to settle at 89.20 (provisional) against the greenback on Monday, due to U.S. dollar selling by banks and importers amid a dip in global crude oil prices.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened strong at 89.46 and moved in the range of 89.05 and 89.50 during the day. It eventually settled at 89.20 (provisional), up 46 paise from its previous close.

The rupee had plunged 98 paise to close at its lifetime low of 89.66 against the U.S. dollar on Friday, due to a huge demand for the greenback in the domestic forex market amid widespread selling pressure in local and global equities and trade-related uncertainties.

In the steepest fall in over three years, the domestic currency nosedived 98 paise to finally settle at 89.66 against the American currency. The previous biggest one-day fall was recorded at 99 paise against the dollar on February 24, 2022.

“The RBI opened the dollar lower at 89.15 by selling in NDF (non-deliverable forward) markets… and kept it in a range of 89-89.30 for the day as the market was wary of RBI selling,” Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director, Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, said.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was marginally down by 0.02% at 100.15.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.78% lower at $62.07 per barrel in futures trade.

On the domestic equity market front, the Sensex declined 331.21 points to settle at 84,900.71, while Nifty fell 108.65 points to 25,959.50.

Foreign institutional investors sold equities worth ₹1,766.05 crore on a net basis on Friday, according to exchange data.

India’s forex reserves jumped $5.543 billion to $692.576 billion during the week ended November 14 due to a steep increase in the value of gold reserves, the RBI said on Friday.