The rupee spurted 15 paise to close at 71.66 against the US dollar on Friday on hopes that the government will roll back the FPI surcharge and unveil measures to boost growth.

 

The rupee, which had earlier in the day breached the 72-mark for the first time this year, stabilised following an announcement that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will address a press conference in the evening.

 

Easing crude oil prices and a recovery in the domestic equity markets also propped up the local currency, forex traders said.

 

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened weaker at 71.93 a dollar. It fell further to the day’s low of 72.05, before recouping losses to touch a high of 71.58. The local unit finally settled at 71.66, up 15 paise against its previous close.

 

The rupee had plunged to an over eight-month low of 71.81 on Thursday amid tumbling equities and incessant foreign fund outflows.

 

“Rupee has taken some breather in the second half today after the report scheduling FM’s conference today at 5 pm. There is an expectation that government should rollback FPI surcharge,” said V K Sharma, Head PCG & Capital Markets Strategy, HDFC Securities.

 

The Indian currency has witnessed heavy selling in the recent past, and has been depreciating against the dollar for the last seven consecutive weeks. There could be a pullback in the rupee as it looks extremely oversold in the short term, Sharma added.

 

Meanwhile, the global crude benchmark Brent Futures fell 0.10 per cent to trade at USD 59.86 per barrel on Friday.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.28 per cent to 98.44.

Meanwhile, the 10-year Indian government bond yield was up at 6.58 per cent.

 

FPIs, which have been net sellers for the past many weeks, offloaded shares worth Rs 902.99 crore on Thursday, provisional data with the exchanges showed.