The Indian rupee weakened to a record low on Friday and logged its worst weekly fall since May, pressured by sustained outflows from local stocks and expectations of a stronger dollar after Donald Trump won the U.S. election.
The rupee closed little changed at 84.3750 against the dollar, after declining to 84.38 late in the session, eclipsing its previous all-time low of 84.3775 hit on Thursday.
State-run banks were spotted offering dollars through much of Friday, most likely on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India, which helped limit the currency’s losses, traders said.
Benchmark Indian equity indexes Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex ended down by 0.2% and 0.1%, resepectively and logged their fifth weekly fall in six.
The Nifty is down 8.1% from its record high hit in late-September.
Overseas investors have pulled out over USD 1.5 billion from Indian stocks over November so far, adding to the USD 11 billion of outflows in October.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. election earlier in the week boosted the dollar and U.S. bond yields, hurting most emerging market currencies.
The dollar index touched a four-month high on Wednesday, but eventually pared gains. It was last quoted at 104.5, up 0.1% on the day, while Asian FX were mostly weaker, with the offshore Chinese yuan down 0.2% at 7.1689.
The RBI may defend 84.50 in the near term, but the rupee is expected to continue declining gradually given expectations of dollar strength, said Abhilash Koikkara, head of forex and rates at Nuvama Professional Clients Group.
Meanwhile, dollar-rupee forward premiums declined, with the 1-year implied yield down 3 basis points at 2.19%, on broad-based interbank and exporter receiving interest.
