Dollar sales by private banks help Rupee recover from lifetime low

The rupee weakened to its lifetime intraday low on Thursday to 85.93 per dollar before closing at 85.848/$1, little changed from the previous day. Risk aversion toward the US dollar on the back of expectations of slower-than-anticipated rate cuts by the Federal Reserve put pressure on the rupee, traders said.

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Selling from foreign portfolio investors (FPI) also added pressure on the rupee. Relatively to Wednesday, when the unit ended at 85.845/$1, the currency was nearly unchanged, LSEG data showed.

The rupee was under pressure for most of the session, but dollar sales from public sector banks, likely on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), contained excess volatility in the rupee, traders said.

The dollar index, which was at its highest level since October 2022 at 108.8 last week, was further up at 109.2 during the day. Dollar index jumped after there were reports that Donald Trump was contemplating use of emergency measures to allow for a new tariff program.

“The weakening bias continues, with overvaluation of the broad real effective exchange rate (REER) also weighing on the exchange rate. Strong intervention presence in the recent months has led to a drain in domestic liquidity, pushing the liquidity to a deficit,” DBS Bank said in a note.