The Indian rupee rose on Friday amid likely inflows and a recovery in the indexes ahead of the release of the exit polls of the national elections.
The rupee was at 83.2750 to the U.S. dollar at 10:42 a.m. IST, up from 83.3175 in the previous session. India’s Nifty 50 Index advanced 0.4%, headed for the first positive day in six.
India national election exit polls are due on Saturday.
“The exit polls will lend a bit of volatility on Monday,” a foreign exchange salesperson at a bank said.
“Undoubtedly, the key will be what the polls are predicting on how many seats the BJP (ruling Bharatiya Janata Party) will win.”
A number of polls will be out over the weekend and should “at least provide a feel on the outcome,” he said.
Whatever the exit polls predict, interbank will probably wait till Tuesday (when the election results are out) for “larger bets”, a currency trader at a bank said.
“Today, the initial downside momentum has been probably fuelled by inflows,” he said, referring to the inflows from MSCI’s May review.
Meanwhile, Asian currencies saw a bit of relief amid a dip in U.S. Treasury yields before the U.S. core PCE data, which is the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge for inflation.
The data came as investors dialled back their expectations on rate cuts the U.S. Federal Reserve is likely to deliver this year. A rate cut at the July meeting is nearly priced out and what happens at the September meeting is a toss-up.
