Rupee opens 3 paise lower at 82.78 against the US dollar

livemint.com:

rupee ended 3 paise lower at 82.75 a dollar. “The rupee is expected to appreciate today amid improving risk appetite in global equities. Increasing hopes of China’s stimulus and Fed pause in its interest rate hike cycle could limit the upside in the dollar.

Further, expectation of weaker economic numbers from US could also weigh on the dollar," ICICI Direct said in a report. The brokerage expects USDINR to dip towards 82.55, as long as it trade under 82.90 level. Only a move below 82.55, it would weaken further towards 82.40, it said.

A surge in crude oil prices weighed on the rupee. Meanwhile, crude oil price traded near the highest level since mid-November as supply cuts from OPEC tightened the market. Brent crude futures traded at $88.93 a barrel.

There was no settlement for the US crude benchmark on Monday due to a holiday. On the domestic front, the Indian benchmark equity indices, Sensex and Nifty, were trading higher in the pre-opening session. On Monday, the Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold Indian shares worth ₹3,367.67 crore, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) net purchased shares to the tune of ₹2,563.48 crore, as per provisional data available on the exchanges.