By Jaspreet Kalra
MUMBAI (Reuters) – The Indian rupee strengthened on Tuesday, rebounding from Friday’s record low, aided by likely intervention from the central bank and an uptick in the offshore Chinese yuan.
The rupee was at 83.3375 against the U.S. dollar as of 10:45 a.m. IST, up 0.1% compared with its close at 83.4250 in the previous session. The rupee had fallen to its record low of 83.43 in the closing minutes of Friday’s session. Indian financial markets were shut on Monday.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) likely sold U.S. dollars via state-run banks on Tuesday, to prevent a further depreciation in the rupee, five traders said.
The rupee seems to have shifted into a weaker trading range, with 83.20 likely to be the immediate resistance, Dilip Parmar, a foreign exchange research analyst at HDFC Securities said.
The dollar index was slightly lower at 104.2 after declining 0.2% on Monday while most Asian currencies rose slightly.
The offshore Chinese yuan was higher at 7.24 after having risen 0.7% on Monday, aided by dollar sales from Chinese state-run banks.
Though short-term factors do favour a slightly weaker yuan, depreciation is expected to be gradual and controlled, ING Bank said in a Monday note.
Meanwhile, dollar-rupee forward premiums fell, with the 1-year implied yield down 4 basis points (bps) at 1.54%, its lowest level in nearly 4 months.
Forward premiums were pressured by persistent receiving interest and an uptick in near-maturity U.S. bond yields.
The 1-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to 5.01% in Asia trading hours, up 4 bps compared with its close on Friday.
Investors now await the release of U.S. personal consumption expenditure (PCE) inflation data later this week.
(This story has been refiled to fix the spelling of depreciation in paragraph 3)
(Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
