Rupee at 3-mth high on fund inflows, weaker greenback

Mumbai: The rupee surged 11 paise to close at an over three-month high of 73.94 against the US dollar on Tuesday, marking its third straight session of gains amid a weak American currency overseas and a firm trend in domestic equities. At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened strong at 73.94 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 73.83 and a low of 74.00.

It finally settled at 73.94, a rise of 11 paise over its previous close. In the previous session, the rupee had settled at 74.05 against the greenback. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which measures the greenback's strength against the basket of six currencies, slipped 0.11 per cent to 95.88. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, was trading 1.52 per cent higher at $82.10 per barrel.

"Rupee extended gains in Tuesday's trade following a surge in risk assets. During the day it made a high of 73.83, from where it has retraced some points on probable RBI intervention. However, it closed to its strongest level since September 28th. In the near-term, spot USD-INR is expected to stay bearish unless there is global risk-aversion or RBI heavily intervenes in the market.

From the level perspective, breaking of 73.80 will lead to further selling and we could see a level of 73.50 while on the higher side 74.20 becomes immediate resistance," said Dilip Parmar, research analyst, HDFC Securities.