MUMBAI, – The Indian central bank was likely selling dollars to support the rupee on Thursday as the local currency teetered near its all-time low, four traders told Reuters.
The rupee was slightly weaker on the day at 84.4175 as of 09:10 a.m. IST, compared with its close of 84.4150 on Tuesday.
The rupee had declined to its all-time low of 84.42 in the previous session.
State-run banks were spotted offering dollars near the 84.41-84.42 levels, most likely on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the traders said.
The RBI will likely “try and hold 84.42-84.43 levels for the day, as there is a lot of buying pressure right from the start (of the session),” a trader with a private bank said.
The rupee’s Asian peers were mostly rangebound on the day while the dollar index was at 106.5 after rising 0.4% on Wednesday.
Benchmark Indian equity indexes, the BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 were down about 0.5% each in early trading. (Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra, Dharamraj Dhutia; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
