Rupee ended higher, Pound falls vs. Dollar

Friday,   09-Nov-2018   05:32 PM (IST)

The Indian rupee ended the session higher at 72.49/50 levels compared to its opening at 72.70/71 levels after touching the high of 72.4550/4650 levels helped by greenback sales from exporters and an overnight plunge in crude oil prices. Brent crude slipped below the $70-per-barrel mark for first time in seven months. Rupee traded in the range of 72.4550-72.85 levels today. Indian shares closed slightly lower today dragged by top IT and energy stocks, while gains in the financial and consumer counters arrested the downside. The benchmark Sensex fell 0.22 percent to 35,158.55, while the broader Nifty declined 0.12 percent to 10,585.2. Indian government bonds gained in a holiday-truncated week, with the benchmark yield falling for a fifth consecutive week, as crude oil prices continued their downward move, easing inflation concerns. In the forward segment 1mth, 3mth and 6mth annualized premia ended the day at 4.07%, 3.93% and 4.09% respectively. India's foreign exchange reserves rose to $393.13 billion as of Nov 2, compared with $392.08 billion a week earlier, the Reserve Bank of India said.

Sterling fell on Friday after the U.S. dollar rallied and investors began to doubt recent optimism about an imminent Brexit deal. The pound has traded as high as $1.3176 this week, a three-week high, after Britain appeared to be edging towards clinching an exit deal with the European Union. But work remains to be done before an agreement is reached, with both sides struggling to decide on a mechanism for avoiding a hard border separating Northern Ireland and Ireland. The Northern Irish party which props up Prime Minister Theresa May’s government said on Friday that her negotiations had raised alarm bells and that it would not support a Brexit deal that divided the United Kingdom. Sterling dropped as much as half a percent to as low as $1.2986, back to levels it stood at on Monday, with much of the fall coming after investors flooded into dollars. That move followed the U.S. Federal Reserve reiterating that it would stick to interest rate tightening in the face of a strengthening labour market.