The Indian rupee is expected to depreciate on Wednesday amid stronger dollar and expectations of an interest rate hike by the Fed in today’s monetary policy meeting. However, easing crude oil prices will continue to support the rupee. Additionally, investors will keep an eye on series of macro-economic data from the US. “Rupee (March) is likely to depreciate towards 77.0 for the day,” said ICICI Direct. In the previous session, rupee closed a touch lower against the US dollar. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit rupee opened strong at 76.40 against the greenback. During the day, it moved in the range of 76.32 and 76.68 efore settling at 76.60 against the dollar, down 6 paise from the previous close.
Heena Naik, Research Analyst – Currency, Angel One Ltd
Read More: Holi 2022: Indian Railways to run special trains, check routes and prices here
“On 15 March 2022, the Indian Rupee weakened towards 76.68 levels on account of opportunistic dollar buying by most oil companies. In the upcoming session, the local unit is likely to trade in a range-bound manner with a slide negative bias towards 76.80 levels as investors indulge in speculation prior to the US Fed Policy release. In addition, there was news of Russia’s Yamal gas pipeline being suspended which could further disturb the supply. Russians had earlier warned of this escalation in response to the EU sanctions on Russian Oil. Despite this, the European Union officials claimed that they continue to import Russian Gas even after sanctions.”
Read More : Gold Prices Today: Yellow metal to remain range-bound ahead of Fed meet outcome, support around Rs 51,000
Tapish Pandey, Research Analyst, SMC Global Securities Ltd
“The Indian rupee likely to trade on mixed note ahead of a closely watched meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve, while oil prices remained volatile as participants weighed the outcome of peace talks on Ukraine. On domestic front, foreign institutional investors (FII) pulled out again Rs 1,249.74 crores from Indian markets indicating weakness likely to persist for rupee. Dollar rupee near month future is trading in a broader range of 76.21 to 76.85 levels from last few trading sessions which are going to act as immediate support and resistance respectively.”
“If USDINR manage to break above said range (76.21-76.85) may edge higher towards its major resistance zone near record high 77.30-77.33 levels. Overall trading setup indicating sideways to bullish trend for dollar rupee we are expecting USDINR to witness a volatile trading session in said broader range. Any dip towards support zone may utilize as trading opportunity by keeping stop loss below 76 mark.”
Anindya Banerjee, DVP, Currency Derivatives & Interest Rate Derivatives at Kotak Securities Ltd
“USDINR spot closed flat inspite of a heavy sell-off in equity markets. Spot closed at 76.60. Sell-off in Chinese tech stocks and property stocks caused the global sell-off. USDINR may remain rangebound between 76.30-76.90 going into US Fed meeting Wednesday evening.”
Gaurang Somaiya, Forex & Bullion Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services
“Rupee consolidated in a narrow range but fell in the latter half of the session ahead of the important FOMC policy statement that will be released today. Expectation is that the central bank could look to raise rates and also give out projections for growth and inflation that could trigger volatility for the dollar. Volatility for the dollar remained low even after Russia put U.S. President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a dozen top U.S. officials on a “stop list” that bars them from entering the country. Apart from the Federal Reserve policy meeting, market participants will also be keeping an eye on the Bank of England policy statement and that is likely to impact the pound that has been weighed down against the US dollar in the last few sessions. We expect the USDINR(Spot) to trade sideways and quote in the range of 76.20 and 76.80.”
