Written by Jaspreet Kalra
Mumbai, February 8 (Reuters) – The Indian rupee ended little changed on Thursday after the Reserve Bank of India left its benchmark policy rate unchanged, but all eyes are now on U.S. economic data and comments from Federal Reserve officials later in the day. are gathering.
Rupees INR=IN Against the US dollar, it closed at 82.9550, little changed from the previous trading close of 82.9675.
dollar index = USD While Asian currencies are mostly moving within a range, they are hovering around the 104 handle.
of RBI held interest rates unchanged on Thursday, but signaled that a rate cut may be a while away as it remains focused on achieving its medium-term inflation target of 4%.
“The last mile of defusing inflation is always the most difficult and we need to keep that in mind,” RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said in a statement.
The rupee rose to an intraday high of 82.8975 rupees in early trading, supported by dollar selling by local private banks, but the rate of increase slowed after “typical push-back buying demand (for the dollar/rupee)” surfaced. Reduced (Forex Trader). This was announced by the state-owned bank.
Short bets on the Chinese yuan have risen to their highest since mid-November last year, but the rupee remains an outlier among major Asian currencies, with investors bullish on the local currency, according to Reuters. He maintains this view. poll.
Dilip Parmar, forex research analyst at HDFC Securities, said the rupee currently appears to be in a “slight stalemate”, but technical factors point to a slightly positive bias against the local currency. said.
Investors are now waiting on new U.S. jobless claims and comments from Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin for clues about when the central bank will start easing interest rates.
Investors are now pricing in a 32% chance that the Fed will keep interest rates unchanged in May, up from 6% last week, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra; Editing by Eileen Soreng)
((jaspreet.kalra@thomsonreuters.com))
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