Rising forex reserves, lower crude rates to firm up rupee

Mumbai, Mar 12: The rupee plunged to a low of 44.58/59 last week on the back of selling in the derivatives side of the Indian equity market but bounced back towards the close of the week closing at 44.49/50 as compared to previous week's close at 44.32/32.

Rupee is likely to gain ground on the back of falling crude oil prices and massive rise in the forex reserves in the just concluded week.

The crude oil prices dropped to USD 60 per barrel in the global markets (New York Mercantile Exchange) which are likely to succor the oil corporates. Healthy US reserves were leading to fall in crude prices.

Foreign exchange reserves (Forex) went up for the seventh week in a row by US dollar 1.558 billion to USD 143.148 billion for the week ended on March three, according to the weekly supplement released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued to be bullish on India with a total investment of Rs 1,404.70 crore in the last five trading sessions for which Security Exchange Board Of India (SEBI) data was available.

On last Thursday the FIIs were net sellers by Rs 287 crore for the first time in the cash market this month as per market regulator SEBI's data, which may depress rupee a bit.

UNI