The rupee rises 18 paise to close at 82.82 against the US dollar

The rupee recovered from its all-time low and settled at 82.82 (provisional) against the US dollar on Wednesday, supported by lower crude oil prices.

Traders said the greenback’s weakness in the overseas market, strength in its Asian peers and suspected intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also helped the currency.

However, sustained outflows of foreign funds and a weak trend in domestic equities limited the valuation bias to some extent.

In the interbank FX market, the local unit opened at 82.87 and touched an intraday high of 82.74 and a low of 82.91 against the greenback.

It eventually stabilized at 82.82, marking an increase of 18 paise from its previous close.

On Tuesday, the rupee fell 22 paise to close at an all-time low of 83 against the dollar.

The Indian rupee fell two days as the dollar index erased most of Tuesday’s gains and crude oil fell more than 2% to $80 a barrel. Stronger Asian currencies and the alleged RBI intervention around 83 also backed the local unit,” said Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.

The dollar index, which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.52% to 103.97.

On the domestic stock market front, the 30-stock BSE Sensex fell 636.75 points or 1.04% to end at 60,657.45, while the broader NSE Nifty fell 189.60 points or 1 .04% to 18,042.95.

Global benchmark Brent crude oil futures fell 2.13% to $80.35 a barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in capital markets on Tuesday as they unloaded shares worth Rs 628.07 crore, according to data from the exchange.

Meanwhile, growth in India’s services sector hit its highest level in six months in December, supported by a solid inflow of new jobs and favorable market conditions, according to a monthly survey released on Wednesday.

(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)