Rupee breaches 70/$-mark, touches an all-time low of 70.08; falls 10% in 2018

Moneycontrol News

After breaching the psychological mark of 70 per US dollar, the rupee has staged a recovery of around 35 paise and trading near 69.77 level. Experts believe that a possible intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) could have stemmed the rupee's fall.

The currency on Tuesday touched an all-time low of 70.08 to the US dollar. With this, the currency has depreciated around 10 percent in 2018 so far. It had opened marginally higher at 69.85 against the greenback on Tuesday morning.

Analysts attributed the weakness in Turkish lira as one of the key reasons for rupee to be under pressure. This has strained emerging market currencies such as India.

Prior to this, the currency ended 110 paise lower at 69.93 on Monday against its Friday's close of 68.83, which was a biggest single session decline against dollar since September 3, 2013.

Technical pattern indicates that the rupee could further depreciate towards 71 per dollar.

“A slowing Chinese economy, tightening monetary policy and an escalating trade war are some of the main reasons for this turmoil into currency markets as sentiments towards emerging markets are worsening. The Indian rupee breaching 70 mark is not because of India-specific factors, but on account of risks of a global contagion emerging on account of the weakening Turkish Lira against the US dollar. If global concerns were to persist, the rupee may even slide to 72 against the dollar,” Abhishek Bansal, Founder and Chairman, ABans Group of Companies told Moneycontrol.

Meanwhile, some analysts also attribute it to domestic factors at play.

“The rupee's fall today was largely due to domestic reasons. Previous resistance for the currency was 69.50 and a fall below that triggered stop losses from importers. There is lot of panic demand seen from importers…the next short-term resistance is seen at 70.50, while the important resistance to watch out for the market will be 71 per dollar. On the downside, support is around 69.30 levels,” Rushabh Maru—Research Analyst at Anand Rathi Share and Stock Brokers, told Moneycontrol.

 

Original Source: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/markets/rupee-recovers-35-paise-after-breaching-70-mark-falls-10-in-2018-2840981.html