Rupee Rises 11 Paise to Close at 82.85 vs USD

Mumbai, Feb 22 (PTI) The rupee appreciated 11 paise to close at 82.85 against the US dollar on Thursday, tracking the broad weakness of the American currency in the overseas market.

Forex traders said rupee has also been supported by positive domestic equities, wherein Nifty scaled fresh all-time high and Sensex surged over 500 points.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the local unit opened at 82.94 against the greenback. It hit an intraday high of 82.82 during the day.

The domestic unit finally settled at 82.85 against the dollar, higher by 11 paise from its previous close of 82.96.

"The Indian rupee appreciated amid dollar inflows in the debt market and softer dollar versus major currencies. So far this month, foreigners have bought USD 1.93 billion debts and sold just USD 0.28 billion equities," said Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.03 per cent higher at 104.03.

"In the overseas markets, the US Dollar Index was trading flat to marginally weaker against the basket of currencies in late Thursday afternoon session in Asia amid improved risk sentiments after most PMI data releases," Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.17 per cent to USD 83.17 per barrel.

Traders said the rupee is expected to trade with a slight positive bias on positive global markets. However, rising global crude oil prices and geopolitical tension in the Middle East may limit the gains in the rupee.

"Traders may watch out for manufacturing and services PMI, weekly unemployment claims and existing home sales data from the US. USDINR spot price is expected to trade in a range of Rs 82.60 to Rs 83.10," said Anuj Choudhary, Research Analyst, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.

On the domestic equity market front, the Sensex advanced 535.15 points, or 0.74 per cent, to 73,158.24. The Nifty rose 162.40 points, or 0.74 per cent, to hit an all-time high of 22,217.45.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital markets on Thursday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,410.05 crore, according to exchange data.