According to analysts, the rupee was trading in a narrow range as traders took a cautious approach ahead of the G20 Summit, which is taking place amidst ongoing US-China trade tiff and rising tensions in the Middle East.
The meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping this weekend could lead to an easing of trade tensions. Uncertainty over whether the talks will produce progress in ending the year-long trade war between the world’s two largest economies comes amid signs of rising risks to global growth.The yield on 10-year bonds of India, meanwhile, has fallen around 50 basis points so far in 2019.
The rupee continues to extend its bullish leg against the dollar on the back of sustained FII (foreign institutional investor) inflows and a stable dollar, forex advisory firm IFA Global said in a note.
Foreign funds pulled out Rs. 0.71 crore from the capital markets on a net basis on Thursday, provisional data showed. The government is due to release data on infrastructure output and fiscal deficit later in the day.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, gained less than 0.1 per cent to 96.232, but was still up only about 0.4% from three-month lows hit earlier this week.Domestic stock markets gave up all of intraday gains in late morning deals on Friday, with the S&P BSE Sensex index falling more than 200 points from its intraday high.
In commodity markets, trade worries continued to weigh on oil, with Brent crude futures – the global benchmark for crude oil – last seen trading down 0.68 per cent at $66.10 per barrel.“A weekly closing below 68.90 will be crucial and in such a case, 68.50 cannot be ruled out. Next week, the euphoria ahead of Budget announcement and the outcome of the G20 meeting will play a major role,” IFA Global added.
