According to forex traders, investors’ upbeat sentiment was restricted due to volatile domestic equity markets and unabated withdrawal of foreign funds.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 87.36 and moved in a wide range during the session, touching the intraday high of 87.25 and the low of 87.41 against the greenback. The unit ended the session at 87.34 (provisional) against the dollar, registering a gain of 3 paise from its previous closing level.
On Friday, the rupee fell 19 paise to settle at 87.37 against the US dollar.
Moreover, on the domestic macroeconomic front, a monthly survey showed that India’s manufacturing sector growth fell to a 14-month low in February amid softer increase in new orders and production.
The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) registered 56.3 in February, down from 57.7 in January, but remained firmly within the ‘expansionary’ territory.
However, they said, the domestic currency found some support due to selling of dollars by exporters and receding crude oil prices overseas.
“There are reports of selling of dollars by exporters which also supported the rupee. However, disappointing macroeconomic data and selling pressure from FIIs capped sharp gains,” said Anuj Choudhary – Research Analyst at Mirae Asset Sharekhan.
Going further, Choudhary said, traders may take cues from ISM manufacturing PMI data from the US, while the USD-INR spot price is expected to stay in a range of 87.20 to 87.65.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.57 per cent lower at 106.95.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.49 per cent to USD 72.45 per barrel in futures trade.
In the domestic equity market, the 30-share BSE Sensex fell 112.163 points, or 0.15 per cent, to settle at 73,085.94, while the Nifty slipped 5.40 points, or 0.02 per cent, to close at 22,119.30 points.
The Reserve Bank on Friday conducted a US dollar-rupee swap worth USD 10 billion for injecting long-term liquidity in the system, with the auction eliciting robust demand. The settlement of the auction will take place on March 4 and March 6.
Under the swap exercise, a bank shall sell US dollars to the Reserve Bank and simultaneously agree to buy the same amount of US dollars at the end of the swap period.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹11,639.02 crore in the capital markets on net basis on Friday, according to exchange data.
The latest Reserve Bank data released on Friday showed the country’s forex reserve jumped by USD 4.758 billion to USD 640.479 billion in the week ended February 21.
In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves had dropped by USD 2.54 billion to USD 635.721 billion.
Also, the official data released on Saturday showed gross GST collections rose by 9.1% to about ₹1.84 lakh crore in February, boosted by domestic consumption and indicating potential economic revival.
However, the government’s fiscal deficit touched 74.5% of the annual target at the end of January 2025, according to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA). The deficit was 63.6% of Revised Estimates (RE) of 2023-24 in the year-ago period.
The country’s economy grew by 6.2% in the October-December quarter, recovering sequentially from seven-quarter lows, but the expansion came in lower than last year.
