Rupee rises 7 paise to close at 90.87 against US dollar
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee gained 7 paise to settle at 90.87 (provisional) against the US dollar on Monday, aided by a sharp fall in global crude oil prices and a weaker greenback amid renewed global trade-related uncertainties.
However, foreign fund outflows, coupled with geopolitical concerns, capped gains for the local unit, forex traders said.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 90.76 and traded in the range of 90.67-90.89 against the greenback during the session. It eventually settled at 90.87 (provisional), up 7 paise from its previous close.
The rupee plunged 26 paise to settle at 90.94 against the US dollar on Friday.
"Rupee rose to 90.67 but was not able to sustain gains as equities did not sustain the morning highs as debt yields rose. Despite the favourable verdict from the US Supreme Court, the rupee did not make any big gains, and the dollar was bought on every dip by importers and other buyers like the FPIs," Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director, Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, said.
The rupee is expected to be in the range of 90.60 to 91.00, he said.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading lower by 0.32 per cent at 97.47.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was down 0.39 per cent at USD 71.49 per barrel.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex went up 479.95 points to settle at 83,294.66, while the Nifty advanced 141.75 points to 25,713.
On Friday, foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 934.61 crore, according to exchange data.
India's forex reserves jumped USD 8.663 billion to hit a new all-time high of USD 725.727 billion in the week ended February 13, the RBI said on Friday.
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Union government assumes full control over TV ratings, TRAI role curtailed: Report
New Delhi: The Union government has assumed full control over television audience measurement, removing the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from oversight of the ratings system that underpins the country’s ₹36,000 crore television advertising market, according to a report published on Wednesday.
The report in Mint said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) now has exclusive authority over the framework governing how television ratings are measured and regulated. TRAI had been entrusted with oversight of TV ratings in 2012 during the UPA government’s tenure. TRAI is no longer mentioned in the relevant policy document, effectively vesting sole authority in the MIB.
The report said TRAI will continue to regulate other aspects of broadcasting, including channel pricing, advertising caps, interconnection and distribution norms, service quality and compliance standards. Its role in determining how ratings agencies track viewing behaviour has been withdrawn.
Television Rating Points (TRPs), which reflect viewership patterns, guide advertisers in deciding where to allocate spending across channels and time slots.
A government source quoted in the report said the ministry could modify TRAI’s decisions even when the regulator oversaw broadcasting.
A former CEO of Prasar Bharati told the newspaper that the MIB has historically regulated rating agencies through licensing and guidelines, and by holding them accountable under existing norms.
During its tenure overseeing ratings, TRAI had taken decisions affecting the broadcast sector, which included capping advertising time at 12 minutes per hour following complaints about excessive commercial breaks and it now remains unclear how these matters will be addressed under the revised arrangement.
Satya N. Gupta, former principal advisor at TRAI, was quoted as saying that merging regulatory functions with policy oversight and removing an independent regulator from the process was a retrograde step.
TRAI’s involvement in broadcasting had earlier attracted criticism as well. In 2012, its consultation paper on quantitative limits on television advertising was viewed by some as overlapping with the Advertising Standards Council of India’s code. Subsequent recommendations covering television audience measurement, ownership of news channels and issues such as paid news had also raised concerns among sections of the industry.
Television ratings have faced scrutiny in recent years, including during the controversy involving the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), where officials of the ratings body were prosecuted over allegations of manipulation of viewership data.
