Rupee in range, Australian Dollar edges higher

Tuesday,   22-Aug-2017   12:22 PM (IST)

The Indian rupee is trading range bound and is currently quoted 64.11/12 levels (12:12 pm). Rupee touched the high 64.0550/0650 levels in line with most Asian currencies and tracking a rebound in regional shares, even as investors awaited policy cues from the Federal Reserve’s annual central banking conference in Jackson Hole this week. Importers’ demand for the dollar is expected to keep rupee range bound. Benchmark indices pared some opening gains to turn flat with Nifty slipping below the 9,800-mark as selling pressure gripped the markets. As per the technical indicators range for the USDINR pair for the remaining part of the day may be 63.90-64.20 levels. Rupee has an immediate support at 64.14 levels. A breach of the same may see rupee at 64.17 followed by 64.22 and 64.30 levels. On the positive side rupee is likely to face resistance at 64.06 levels and if it is able to break the same then it may gain up to 63.99 levels followed by 63.93 and 63.87 levels. In the forward segment 1mth, 3mth and 6mth annualized premia are currently trading at 4.74%, 4.43% and 4.39% respectively.

The Australian dollar edged moderately higher against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, while the New Zealand dollar edged lower as sentiment on the greenback mildly strengthened ahead of the Jackson Hole Summit due to begin on Thursday. AUD/USD eased up 0.08% to 0.7944. Traders were looking ahead to this week's annual meeting of top central bankers and economists in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the heads of the U.S. and European central banks will be making keynote speeches. Their comments will be closely watched for fresh policy signals from the world’s two most powerful central banks. Market participants also continued to focus on political tensions in Washington after senior White House advisor Steven Bannon was fired on Friday. Ongoing uncertainty over the economic agenda of U.S. President Donald Trump and doubts that the Federal Reserve will deliver a third rate hike this year have fed into recent dollar weakness. NZD/USD held steady at 0.7325. Geopolitical tensions also continued to dominate investors' attention, after North Korea unveiled a propaganda video of its threat to fire missiles near the U.S. territory of Guam. Pyongyang threatened the U.S. with “merciless revenge” for ignoring its warnings over annual military drills with South Korea.