MUMBAI: The Indian rupee was little changed on Thursday as the Reserve Bank of India likely intervened to support the currency after a hike in taxes on equity investment gains dampened risk appetite.
The rupee was at 83.6975 against the U.S. dollar as of 10:40 a.m. IST, marginally up from its close at 83.7175 in the previous session. The currency had declined to its all-time low of 83.72 on Wednesday.
Foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth 81.06 billion rupees ($968 million) on Tuesday and Wednesday, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showed.
Benchmark equity indexes the BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 were both down by about 0.5% on Thursday.
The Indian government raised the tax rate on equity derivatives trades and on capital gains from equity investments on Tuesday, weighing on sentiment surrounding domestic stock market.
The RBI intervened in both the local spot and non-deliverable forwards (NDF) market to support the rupee, traders said.
Indian rupee settles at record closing low
The currency is likely to continue seeing “gradual depreciation,” with the RBI keeping a firm grip on the pace of decline, a senior trader at a foreign bank said.
While the rupee has hit record low level levels in the last three sessions, RBI interventions have ensured that the depreciation has been gradual. The rupee is down nearly 0.4% in July so far.
The currency is expected to oscillate within the range of 83.50 on the upside and 84.00 on the downside, said Amit Pabari, managing director at FX advisory firm CR Forex.
The dollar index was down 0.1% at 104.2 while Asian currencies were mixed, with the Korean won down 0.5% while the Chinese yuan ticked higher.
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