Rupee jumps 40 paise to 85.05 against US dollar in early trade
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee appreciated sharply by 40 paise to 85.05 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday on the back of a weak American currency index and positive domestic equity markets.
Inflow of foreign funds and the RBI's announcement of giving a record dividend to the government for FY25 also added strength to the local currency, forex traders said.
Besides, market participants will await the release of industrial and manufacturing production data for April as well as the Q1 GDP growth numbers, scheduled this week, that are likely to offer deeper insights into the country's economic activity, according to analysts.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened at 85.02 and strengthened further to 84.98 before trading at 85.05 against the greenback in initial deals, registering a sharp gain of 40 paise over its previous close.
On Friday, the rupee jumped 50 paise to close at 85.45 against the US dollar.
The steady gain in domestic unit was attributed to the global trend of selling dollar and rising yields of American long-term bonds amid global trade-related uncertainties.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading lower by 0.34 per cent at 98.67.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.32 per cent to USD 64.99 per barrel in futures trade.
In the domestic equity market, the 30-share BSE Sensex advanced 630.68 points, or 0.77 per cent, to 82,351.76, while the Nifty rose 187 points, or 0.75 per cent, to 25,040.15.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased equities worth Rs 1,794.59 crore on a net basis on Friday, according to exchange data.
The Reserve Bank of India's latest weekly data released on Friday showed India's forex reserves dropped USD 4.888 billion to USD 685.729 billion for the week ended May 16.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
