Rupee heads for best monthly performance since Jan on portfolio inflows
rupee performing well
The Indian rupee was poised for its biggest monthly advance versus the USdollar since January, aided by persistent foreign equity inflows.
The rupee was little changed at 82.0450 to the dollar on Friday, having hovered around the 82 handle throughout this week.
For the month, the rupee was up 0.8 per centon the back of more than $3.5 billion of inflows into Indian equities that have pushed the BSE Sensex and the Nifty 50 Index to record highs.
The "significant" foreign inflows have helped the rupee hang around the 82 level in the face of weakness in the Chinese yuan and the hawkish USFederal Reserve, said Amit Pabari, managing director at CR Forex.
Also read |Reserve Bank of India keeps Repo Rate unchanged at 6.5%
The rupee has fared better than most of the Asian peers in June. The offshore yuan is down about 2 per centthis month, the Thai baht has lost 2.4 per centand the Indonesian rupiah is little changed.
The offshore yuan has been weighed by the divergent US and China interest rate outlook and disappointment over the Asian nation's reopening recovery.
The Fed's hawkish tone and recent robust USdata have made it more likely that the central bank will opt for more rate hikes.
On Thursday, the final print for first-quarter GDP growth came in at 2.0 per cent, higher than last month's 1.3 per centreading and the 1.4 per cent forecast by economists polled by Reuters. USweekly claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 239,000 from last week's revised 265,000 number.
Odds of a 25-basis point hike by the Fed next month reached nearly 85 per cent, and that for another in September or November rose.
The 2-year USyield climbed to nearly 4.90 per centovernight, the highest since March. The dollar index reached a two-week high.
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