Indian rupee hits 6-month high against US dollar
What's the story
The Indian rupee has hit a six-month high of 94.08 against the US dollar on Friday, its strongest intraday level since May 7. The domestic currency opened at 94.50 against the dollar, losing nine paise from its previous close of 94.41. It initially recovered to 94.36 before strengthening further to touch the six-month high of 94.08, according to latest market updates.
Market dynamics
Overnight gains in oil prices and recovery in US dollar
Forex traders have attributed the rupee's performance to overnight gains in crude oil prices and a recovery in the US dollar.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.17% higher at 101.71.
Meanwhile, Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was up 2.04% at $100.30 per barrel in futures trade.
Market predictions
Rupee could trade with positive bias
Anuj Choudhary, a research analyst at Mirae Asset Sharekhan, has predicted that the rupee could trade with a positive bias. This is due to the strength in domestic markets and fresh foreign institutional investor (FII) inflows.
However, he cautioned that geopolitical tensions involving Russia and Ukraine as well as developments in the Middle East could limit these gains.