Rupee opens higher by 17 paise at 66.12/$

On the global front, US dollar is expected to gain further momentum as contrasting picture seems to be emerging across the Atlantic, wherein Fed is talking about a rate hike and ECB is contemplating at a prolonged accommodative stance. This entails flight of capital to a safer and high yielding currency like greenback.

The Indian rupee opened higher by 17 paise at 66.12/$ in early trade on Thursday. Indian rupee remained under pressure, with spot values closing around 66.30 levels against the greenback. Growing strength in US dollar is taking a toll on the emerging markets. Buoyancy in the greenback is attributed to the fact that markets are convinced about US Federal Reserve hiking interest rates in December, with Federal forward rates curve suggesting 70% probability of 25 basis points move on the rates. In the latest, minutes of the recent US FOMC meeting indicated that most of the members of Federal Reserve concur on the decision to hike interest rates in December.

On the global front, US dollar is expected to gain further momentum as contrasting picture seems to be emerging across the Atlantic, wherein Fed is talking about a rate hike and ECB is contemplating at a prolonged accommodative stance. This entails flight of capital to a safer and high yielding currency like greenback.

On macroeconomic side, US Housing Starts during October declined 11.0% on mom basis, worse than the expectations for a drop of ‐3.8%. US Building Permits fared better during the month, increasing 4.1% to a 1.15mn annualized rate. Meanwhile, pessimism persisted in China, with the country’s President Xi stating that the domestic economy faces considerable downward pressure.

The rupee ended at 66.29, lower by 27 paise from its previous close of 66.02 on Tuesday. The currency touched a high and low of 66.16 and 66.21 respectively.

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 66.11 and for Euro stood at 70.39 on November 18, 2015. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 53.63, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 100.5128.