Rupee opens 3 paise down at 73.38 against dollar

NEW DELHI: The rupee on Monday opened nearly 3 paise down at 73.38 against the US dollar due to some buying in American currency by banks and importers.

The local currency consolidated in a narrow range for the whole of last week despite volatility in domestic and global equities. Talks over stimulus package in the US and Brexit uncertainty kept most market participants on the edge.

On the domestic front, lack of cues kept the volatility low for the currency. Appreciation for the rupee remained capped as the RBI continued to intervene to cap the volatility for the currency.

The latest data released by the RBI showed India’s FX reserves for the week ended October 9 increased by $5.867 billion to record high of $551.505 billion.

For the day, brokerage Motilal Oswal Financial Services expects the momentum for the rupee to remain low and trade with a negative bias in the range of 73.20 and 73.80.

Pound witnessed a lot of volatility and the currency traded in a broad range of 1.2850 and 1.3050 as uncertainty following ongoing Brexit negotiations kept most market participants on the edge. Little progress was made at the EU summit but all member states agreed to continue negotiations.

For the week, forex analysts expect that more clarity will be needed to determine a trend for the currency. But increased uncertainty is likely to keep the overall trend low for the GBPUSD pair.