By Jaspreet Kalra
MUMBAI (Reuters) – The Indian rupee logged its the sixth consecutive weekly decline on Friday as pressure remained on account of heightened dollar demand in the non-deliverable forwards market and a weaker yuan while mild inflows helped the currency on the day.
The rupee closed stronger at 84.7875 against the U.S. dollar on Friday, but fell 0.1% on the week.
While the rupee was supported by likely dollar-selling intervention by the central bank earlier in the session, it found some relief in latter half on account of inflows, traders said.
Benchmark Indian equity indexes, the BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 ended higher by about 1% on the day.
The dollar index was slightly higher at 107, on course for its best weekly performance in a month, while Asian currencies weakened between 0.1% to 0.6%.
U.S. producer price inflation data released on Thursday reaffirmed investor expectations of a 25-basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve on Dec. 18 as well as a comparatively slower pace of policy easing over 2025, which would be dollar-positive.
“President-elect Trump’s policy thrust of immigration controls, tariffs and personal and corporate tax cuts (are) likely to mean the Fed signals a shallower, slower path of easing through 2025,” ING Bank said in a note.
Persistent strength in the U.S. dollar contributed to the rupee declining to its all-time low of 84.88 earlier in the week, alongside market expectations of a dovish tilt in the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy.
Bearish bets on the rupee have increased to a two-year high amid growing concerns that potential U.S. tariffs would undermine the appeal of emerging market assets, according to a Reuters poll.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
