Rupee strengthens past 90/USD level in early trade
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee appreciated 24 paise to 89.96 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday, supported by corporate dollar inflows and easing crude oil prices.
Forex traders said the gain in the USD/INR pair follows the rupee’s string of record lows in recent weeks on likely intervention from the Reserve Bank of India.
Moreover, crude oil prices hovering around USD 59 per barrel level supported market sentiment.
ALSO READ:Rupee trades in narrow range against US dollar in early trade
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 90.19 against the US dollar, then gained some ground and touched 89.96 against the US dollar, registering a gain of 24 paise over its previous close.
In initial trade it also touched 90.22 against the American currency. On Thursday, the rupee appreciated 18 paise against the US dollar to close at 90.20 against the greenback.
The rupee sank to a fresh record low, breaching the 91-a-dollar mark for the first time on Tuesday.
"Since the speculators are out of the market the buying of US dollar syndrome has come down a bit though intra-day we could see spikes," said Anil Kumar Bhansali Head of Treasury and Executive Director Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP.
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, Bhansali said, adding that "Rupee remains in a range of 90-90.50".
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.04 per cent higher at 98.46.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading lower by 0.27 per cent at USD 59.66 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share benchmark index Sensex climbed 375.98 points to 84,857.79, while the Nifty was up 110.60 points to 25,934.15.
Foreign Institutional Investors purchased equities worth Rs 595.78 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.
Meanwhile, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) member Sanjeev Sanyal on Thursday said he is not concerned about the rupee at all, arguing that even China and Japan witnessed exchange rate weaknesses during their high growth phases.
Speaking at 'Times Network's India Economic Conclave 2025', Sanyal said since the 90s, the rupee has mostly been allowed to find its own level, but the RBI uses its reserves to intervene in either direction to stop excessive volatility.
"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.
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Tamil Nadu Assembly to meet on Jan 20
Chennai (PTI): Tamil Nadu Assembly's first session for the year 2026 is all set to commence on January 20 with Governor R N Ravi's customary address to the House on schedule.
With the Assembly election due by April this year, the session is expected to be more tumultuous than during non-election years and the main opposition AIADMK is set to aggressively target the government.
The Assembly session is set to commence at 9.30 AM in the Fort St George Secretariat campus.
It remains to be seen whether Governor Ravi will deliver the address, having walked out of the House for the third consecutive year in 2025. Ravi had said the national anthem should have been played at the commencement of the session. In 2022, when Ravi made his maiden address to the House, the main opposition AIADMK had walked out of the House.
Ravi, who has locked horns with the DMK regime over several issues, assumed office as the 26th Governor of Tamil Nadu on September 18, 2021, and the DMK assumed power that year after being in opposition for a decade (2011-21).
According to officials, traditionally, in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, the 'Tamil Thai Valthu', the invocation to Mother Tamil is sung at the commencement; following which the Governor would read out the address and the national anthem is played at the end.
In 2025, Ravi walked out of the House without reading the address and the Lok Bhavan had said: "When the national anthem was not sung or played at the commencement of the Governor's address, Governor respectfully reminded the House of its Constitutional duty and fervently appealed to the Chief Minister and Speaker for singing or playing the national anthem."
The Bhavan had said the request was not complied with. Not singing or playing the national anthem at the beginning of the Governor’s address was a blatant disrespect to the Constitution and the national anthem. "In deep anguish, Governor left the House," the Governor's office had said.
In 2024, Ravi declined to read out the customary inaugural address of the House, prepared by the DMK government, and also walked out of the Assembly. The Lok Bhavan, later said the address had numerous passages with misleading claims far from truth and and "reading them would have amounted to the Governor’s address becoming a constitutional travesty."
The Governor's office had also said Speaker M Appavu had launched a tirade against Ravi and called him a "follower of Nathuram Godse and more."
In 2023, Ravi walked out of the House abruptly while CM Stalin pointed to deviation from the government prepared text as the Governor avoided references like the Dravidian model of governance. The chief minister piloted a resolution to have on House record only the pre-approved, state prepared text and it was adopted.
