By Sethuraman N R and Siddhi Nayak
BENGALURU (Reuters) – The Indian rupee strengthened beyond the key 82 per dollar mark on Friday on the back of scaled-down bets of a hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve in the coming months but gains were capped by importers rushing in to hedge at over five-week highs.
The rupee was trading at 81.9250 per dollar by 10:46 a.m. IST after closing at 82.1750 in the previous session. It rose to 81.8825 intra-day, its highest since May 9.
“The post-FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) rally in USD is fading fast,” said Anindya Banerjee, head of research, FX and interest rates at Kotak Securities.
The dollar index was trading close to a five-week low hit in the previous session and saw its worst one-day session since March 13 after a hawkish European Central Bank (ECB) signalled more rate hikes.
The dollar also came under pressure after a set of U.S. data made traders bet that the Fed would not follow through with more rate hikes after it signalled at least 50 basis points raise this year.
“It will be tough for the rupee to edge above 81.80 as importers will rush to hedge,” a dealer at a private bank said.
Three other traders said public banks were already seen buying dollars, likely on behalf of importers, which was preventing further gains in the rupee.
The Indian rupee has gained about 0.7% so far this week, also helped by corporate dollar inflows.
“Ongoing rupee gains would be short-lived and it could move back to 82.50 levels as lower premiums would push the importers to hedge their risk for the near term,” said Amit Pabari, managing director of CR Forex.
Meanwhile, rupee forward premiums edged up to 1.74% after hitting its lowest this year in the previous session at 1.69%.
(Reporting by Siddhi Nayak and Sethuraman NR; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Sohini Goswami)
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