Mumbai: The rupee witnessed a volatile trading session and settled for the day on a lower note, down 9 paise at 90.74 (provisional) against the US dollar on Monday, as traders assessed the details of the India-US interim trade framework.
Forex traders said the rupee witnessed high volatility as the support from positive domestic equities and foreign fund inflows was negated by risk-off sentiments among investors.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 90.66 against the US dollar, then gained some ground to touch 90.37, registering a gain of 28 paise over its previous close.
It, however, erased the gains and touched an intra-day low 90.77.
At the end of Monday’s trading session, the rupee was quoted at 90.74 (provisional), down 9 paise from its previous close.
On Friday, the rupee declined 31 paise to settle at 90.65 against the US dollar.
India and the US on Saturday announced that they have reached a framework for an interim trade agreement under which both sides will reduce import duties on a number of goods to boost two-way trade.
While the US will reduce tariffs on Indian goods to 18 per cent from the present 50 per cent, India will eliminate or cut down import duties on all US industrial goods and a wide range of American food and agricultural products, including dried distillers’ grains, red sorghum for animal feed, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, soybean oil, wine and spirits.
According to a joint statement issued by both sides, India has expressed its intention to purchase USD 500 billion of US energy products, aircraft and aircraft parts, precious metals, technology products and coking coal over the next five years.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.05 per cent lower at 97.58.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 1.04 per cent lower at USD 67.34 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex jumped 485.35 points to settle at 84,065.75, while the Nifty advanced 173.60 points to 25,867.30.
Foreign Institutional Investors purchased equities worth Rs 1,950.77 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.
Meanwhile, India’s forex reserves jumped by another USD 14.361 billion to a new all-time high of USD 723.774 billion during the week ended January 30, the Reserve Bank said on Friday.
In the previous reporting week, the forex kitty had increased by USD 8.053 billion to USD 709.413 billion, surging past the earlier all-time high of USD 704.89 billion recorded in September 2024.
