Rupee climbs 37 paise to 82.45 against US dollar

Rallying for the second straight session, the rupee jumped 37 paise to close at 82.45 against the US dollar on Thursday amid a weak greenback overseas.

Forex traders said factors like strong Asian peers and crude oil prices trading below $ 80 per barrel also helped the local currency.

However, unabated foreign fund outflows and a weak trend in domestic equities dented investor sentiments.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the domestic unit opened at 82.75 and touched an intra-day high of 82.50 and a low of 82.80 against the greenback.

It finally ended at 82.45, registering a rise of 37 paise over its previous close.

On Wednesday, the rupee recovered from its all-time low level and settled at 82.82 against the dollar.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, declined 0.06 per cent to 104.18.

"The Indian rupee gained for a second day in trot supported by a weaker greenback and stronger regional peers. However, the gain was curtailed amid foreign fund outflows...," said Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.

The December Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes barely affected the forex market as nothing new came from the minutes, he added.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 304.18 points or 0.50 per cent to end at 60,353.27, while the broader NSE Nifty fell 50.80 points or 0.28 per cent to 17,992.15.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures rose 2.62 per cent to $79.88 per barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital markets on Thursday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,449.45 crore, according to exchange data.

"Officials at the Federal Reserve's December policy meeting agreed the US central bank should slow the pace of its aggressive interest rate increases. Overall the minutes were hawkish and that kept the dollar supported at lower levels," said Gaurang Somaiya, Forex & Bullion Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Focus will be on services PMI and private payrolls numbers from the US.

"We expect the USD-INR (Spot) to trade positive and quote in the range of 82.50 and 83.05," Somaiya added.

According to Jateen Trivedi, VP Research Analyst at LKP Securities, the rupee gained as crude oil prices were trading below $80 per barrel.

"Rupee finds support on back of strong fall in oil prices as India's import bill reduced strongly... Rupee range can be seen between 82.25-82.75," Trivedi said.