Rupee recovers early losses; gains 9 paise

The rupee recovered from early losses to trade higher by 9 paise at 73.24 against the US currency in early session on Monday on account of some selling of American currency by banks and exporters.

The local currency opened at 73.41 against the dollar on Monday. The currency on Friday settled at 73.33.

Crude corrected by over 7 per cent in the last couple of weeks on back of swelling US inventories and concern that trade wars were curbing economic activity. However, oil prices were hovering 0.23 per cent up at 79.96 per barrel on Monday


Latest CFTC data also showed that money managers cut net long US crude futures and options positions by 37,080 contracts to 259,375 in the week to October 16. To curb the volatility of the rupee RBI has been intervening consistently and that reflects from the FX reserves data.

Last week’s, data showed FX reserves dropped by $5.14billion, largest weekly drop since Nov’11.

Reserves now stand at $394.46 billion suggesting that the central bank sold over $35 billion to curb the volatility of the currency. “USDINR pair is expected quote in the range of 73.20 and 73.80,” Motilal Oswal Financial Services said in a report.