According to forex
traders, withdrawal of foreign capital is expected to halt as the latest
government data released on Friday showed the country's economy grew by 6.2 per
cent in the October-December quarter, recovering sequentially from
seven-quarter lows. However, the
volatility triggered by the US tariff continued to linger, leading to an increase
in crude oil prices and capping a sharp gain in the domestic currency, they
said.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened
at 87.36 and gained further ground to 87.28 against the American currency,
registering a gain of 9 paise from its previous close. On Friday (28 Feb ’25),
the rupee fell 19 paise to settle at 87.37 against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the
greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.34 per
cent lower at 107.19. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.59 per cent
to $73.24 per barrel in futures trade.
In the domestic equity market, the 30-share
BSE Sensex was trading 167.25 points or 0.23 per cent
higher at 73,365.35 in morning trade, while Nifty was up 69.65 points or 0.31 per cent to
22,194.35.
The Reserve
Bank on Friday conducted US dollar-rupee swap
worth $10 billion for injecting long-term liquidity in the system, with the
auction eliciting robust demand. The settlement of auction will take place on
March 4 and March 6.
Under the swap exercise, a bank shall sell US
dollars to the Reserve Bank and simultaneously agree to buy the same amount of
US dollars at the end of the swap period. Foreign
Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹11,639.02 crore in
the capital markets on net basis on Friday, according to exchange data.
The latest Reserve Bank data released on Friday
showed the country's forex reserve jumped by $4.758 billion to $640.479 billion
in the week ended February 21.
In the previous reporting week, the overall
reserves had dropped by $2.54 billion to $635.721 billion. Also, the official data released on Saturday showed gross GST collections rose
by 9.1 per cent to about ₹1.84 lakh crore in February, boosted by domestic
consumption and indicating potential economic revival.
However, the government's fiscal deficit touched
74.5 per cent of the annual target at the end of January 2025, according to the
data released by Controller General of Accounts (CGA). The deficit was 63.6 per
cent of Revised Estimates (RE) of 2023-24 in the year-ago period.