Tag : IIP

Mumbai: The rupee pared its initial gains and settled 5 paise lower at its fresh lifetime low of 77.55 against the US dollar on Friday, as inflation concerns and strength of the American currency weighed on the local unit. Forex traders said the rupee consolidated in a narrow range, as the weakness in regional currencies and depressing economic data weighed on the domestic unit, while intervention from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) restricted the losses.At the interbank forex market, the rupee opened at 77.35 against the greenback and moved in a range of 77.26 to 77.55 in the day's trade.The rupee finally ended at an all-time low of 77.55, down 5 paise from its previous close of 77.50.On a weekly basis, the rupee has depreciated 65 paise on the back of a stronger dollar index, risk-off sentiment and foreign fund outflows.''Among all the drivers, the liquidity factor is inevitably a key driver of recent market moves and market participants are rushing for safe-haven assets,'' Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities, said. On Friday, risk appetite remained dismal with the benchmark equity index erasing morning gains and the rupee also surrendered to the dollar, Parmar said, adding ''weakness in regional currencies and depressing economic data weigh on the local unit while intervention from RBI restricted the losses.'' India's headline inflation galloped for a seventh straight month to touch an 8-year high of 7.79 per cent in April on rising food and fuel prices, raising the odds of an interest rate hike by the RBI early next month to tame prices.With factory output measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) remaining subdued at 1.9 per cent in March, some economists feel that another interest rate hike on t ...