Rupee Strengthens Past 90/USD in Early Trading on December 19

The Indian rupee experienced a boost in early trading today, strengthening past the 90 per dollar mark. This appreciation follows a period of record lows for the rupee against the US dollar in recent weeks.

Currency traders suggest that likely intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) contributed to the rupee's gain against the dollar. Market sentiment also found support from crude oil prices hovering around $59 per barrel.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 90.19 against the US dollar. It then gained further ground, reaching 89.96 against the dollar, marking a 24 paise increase from its previous closing value. Earlier in the session, it briefly touched 90.22 against the American currency. On Thursday, the rupee had already shown positive movement, appreciating by 18 paise to close at 90.20 against the US dollar.

Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director at Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, noted a shift in market dynamics. "Since the speculators are out of the market, the buying of US dollar syndrome has come down a bit, though intraday we could see spikes," said Bhansali. He also commented on US CPI data, stating, "The US CPI came lower than expected but was also due to non-collection of sufficient data, and therefore, the next month’s CPI becomes more important," adding that "the rupee remains in a range of 90-90.50".

Globally, the dollar index, which measures the dollar's strength against six other major currencies, showed a slight increase of 0.04%, trading at 98.46. Meanwhile, Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil prices, saw a decrease of 0.27% to $59.66 per barrel in futures trading.

On the domestic stock market front, the 30-share Sensex index rose by 375.98 points to reach 84,857.79. The Nifty also experienced gains, climbing 110.60 points to 25,934.15. Exchange data indicates that foreign institutional investors purchased equities worth ₹595.78 crore on Thursday.

Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), expressed a lack of concern regarding the rupee's fluctuations. Speaking at 'Times Network's India Economic Conclave 2025', Sanyal stated that even China and Japan experienced exchange rate weaknesses during their high-growth periods. He added that the RBI typically intervenes to curb excessive volatility, allowing the rupee to generally find its own level since the 1990s. "I am not concerned about the rupee at all... Let me say that the rupee and its current weakness should not be necessarily conflated with some economic worry, because historically, if you go over time, you will see that economies that are in their high growth phase very often go through a phase of exchange rate weakness," he said.