Rupee opens high marking positivity in the domestic market against the weak performance of the US Dollar. It settles high at 75.51 at around 14:00 UTC making a gain of 1 paise tracking the last close. It trades between a high of 75.42 and a low of 75.66 before settling a little high.
The restarting of business activities in the domestic economy and consistent flow of foreign funds helped Rupee stay positive. INR traded in a tight range with the US equity market and US Dollar index rising overseas. US Dollar index with greenback’s strength against a pool of 6 currencies surged to 96.70. US Federal Reserve to hold a meet late today discussing monetary policies to deal in post-crisis of COVID-19 pandemic.
Crude Oil Drops with Expectation of Rising Inventory
Crude oil prices dropped today marking oversupply by Gulf producers and strong US equity performance. While Brent Crude oil dipped by 2.1% to USD 39.95 per barrel, US WTI crude was down by 2.6% to USD 37.21 a barrel. Goldman Sachs forecast for 2020 reported Brent crude at USD 40.40 a barrel. US WTI crude weighs at USD 36 per barrel with a warning of fall in prices in following weeks due to piling of inventory and uncertainty in crude demand. Fall in crude oil prices to support INR against USD.
OPEC+ agreed for extension of production cuts to 9.7 million BPD till the end of July supporting the oil prices. But, Gulf countries like UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait declared not to extend any more output cuts with the optimism of recovery in demand. API has scheduled an inventory report with an estimation over US crude and gasoline inventories to fall 1.5 million barrels and 100000 barrels respectively in the first week of June.
Gold Price Settles Flat
Gold prices fluctuated in today’s session marking 2-day meet of US Federal Reserve discussing monetary policies. Spot gold rose 0.1% to USD 1695.48 an ounce, while US Gold futures slipped 0.2% to USD 1701 an ounce.
Gold investors’ sentiments boosted a little with the weakening of the US Dollar index. Also, recovering of world economy amid the spread of Coronavirus forced gold to lay flat. Limiting gold’s value, investors favoured investment in financial stocks amid a recovery in the economy.
Domestic gold futures fell 0.09% to INR 46058 per 10 grams following the trend in the upliftment of the domestic equity market for hopes of swift recovery.