Rupee jumps 38 paise to close at 74.66 against US dollar

Mumbai (Bombay): The rupee welcomed 38 paise to settle in 74.66 over the US dollar on Fri. tracking weakness within the greenback & gains within the national equity market amidst optimism over potential COVID-19 vaccine.

Forex traders stated investors have been bullish on rising market assets following encouraging vaccine test results. Besides, positive national equities, steady crude oil costs & weak US currency supported the regional unit.

The rupee opened in 74.60, & settled for the day in 74.66 over the US dollar, registering a leap of 38 paise over its recent close.

It’d settled in 75.04 over the greenback on Thu.

During this four-hour trading session, the rupee seen an intra-day high of 74.60 & a low of 75.02.

A potential COVID-19 vaccine indigenously developed by this Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila Health-care has got (1) sanction from that Drugs Controller Gen. of India(In) (DCGI) for person clinical trials.

The sanction procedure has been fast-tracked following a recommendation by this subject expert committee on COVID-19, discussing the urgency & unmet medical want during this epidemic.

The dollar index, that gauges the greenback’s strength over a basket of 6 currencies, fallen 0.11 percent to 97.20.

On the national equity market front, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex has been trading 145.54 points higher in 35,989.24 & broader NSE Nifty rose 45.30 points to 10,597.00.

Foreign institutional investors have been net sellers within the capital market as they sold shares value INR 556.72 cr on Thu., as per provisional exchange statistics.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fallen 1.11 percent to USD 42.66 per barrel.

Meantime, the amount of instances across the globe related to COVID-19 has crossed 1.08 cr & the number of deaths has topped 5.20 lakh.

In India(In), the number of deaths due the disease rose to 18,213 & the amount of infections spiked to 6,25,544, as per the health ministry.