Rupee rises 25 paise to close at 95.36 against US dollar

MUMBAI: The rupee appreciated 25 paise to close at 95.36 (provisional) against the US dollar on Tuesday, as Brent crude oil prices and the US dollar index retreated from their elevated levels after a pause in US-Iran hostilities.

Forex traders said besides the de-escalation of tensions in the West Asia war, likely intervention by the Reserve Bank of India, positive domestic markets and easing US treasury yields supported the rupee.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 95.47, then touched an intraday high of 95.23 and a low of 95.67 against the US dollar. The rupee finally ended the session at 95.36 (provisional), registering a rise of 25 paise from its previous close.

On Monday, the rupee depreciated 43 paise to settle at 95.61 against the American currency.

"We expect the rupee to trade with a negative bias due to uncertainty in the West Asia war. Any fresh escalations in the West Asia war may again lead to a spike in crude oil prices and pressurise the rupee.

"However, if the de-escalation remains, we may see some recovery in the rupee. Traders may take cues from ADP weekly employment, trade balance and existing home sales data from the US. USDINR spot price is expected to trade in a range of 95.10 to 95.80," said Anuj Choudhary, Research Analyst at Mirae Asset ShareKhan.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading at 99.80, down 0.24 per cent.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading lower by 2.04 per cent at USD 92.33 per barrel in futures trade.

On the domestic equity market front, Sensex rallied 394.50 points to settle at 73,918.76, while the Nifty climbed 119.10 points to 23,242.10.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 5,555.67 crore on a net basis on Monday, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, India recorded a current account surplus of USD 7.1 billion, or 0.7 per cent of GDP, in the January-March quarter of 2025-26, helped by services exports and higher remittances, according to Reserve Bank data released on Monday.

The surplus was USD 13.7 billion or 1.4 per cent of GDP in the fourth quarter of 2024-25.

However, for the entire fiscal 2025-26, the current account deficit stood at USD 25.2 billion or 0.6 per cent of GDP compared to USD 22.9 billion or 0.6 per cent of GDP in 2024-25.

US President Donald Trump has asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to retaliate to Iran's latest barrage of missiles, saying it would jeopardise the ongoing negotiations for a peace deal to end the three-month-long conflict.

US media outlet Axios reported that after Iran launched missiles at Israel on Sunday, Trump spoke to Netanyahu in a bid to prevent fresh tensions between the two nations from derailing the peace deal.

Trump also asked Iran to return to the negotiating table.