The rupee settled at a new closing low of 92.46 per dollar on Friday, against the previous close of 92.20 per dollar, as the dollar index climbed to a three-month high amid the escalating conflict in West Asia, dealers said. Earlier in the day, the local currency had fallen to a fresh low of 92.48 per dollar.
The dollar index rose beyond 100 to 100.10 against the previous day’s 99.29.
In the past two weeks, heightened risk aversion in global markets has pushed crude prices higher, putting sustained pressure on the rupee and its Asian peers.
“The Indian rupee weakened for the second consecutive week, settling at a fresh record low as a geopolitical worry weighed on the local currency. Surging global crude oil prices, driven by escalating tensions in West Asia, and sustained foreign fund outflows amid heightened risk aversion have kept the rupee under significant pressure. Further, aggressive dollar demand from importers and traders intensified as the currency breached the record high,” said Dilip Parmar, senior research analyst at HDFC Securities.
“Spot rupee maintains a bullish bias, with immediate resistance anticipated between 92.50-92.70 and a support at 92.05,” he added.
The rupee has depreciated by 7.56 per cent in the current financial year (FY26) so far and in the current calendar year (CY26), it has weakened by 2.79 per cent against the dollar.
On the other hand, the yield on the benchmark 10-year government bond settled 1 basis point higher at 6.68 per cent.
Market participants said bond yields remained capped as the cut-off in the open market operation (OMO) purchase auction came in at prices higher than prevailing market levels, which helped stabilise sentiment. However, the outcome was largely in line with expectations and therefore had a limited impact on yields.
“The OMO cutoff was better than secondary market prices, but it was along expected lines, hence it did not affect the yield much,” said a dealer at a primary dealership.
The RBI bought ₹50,000 crore worth of bonds via OMO auction on Friday.
Additionally, to ensure that foreign exchange intervention does not tighten system liquidity, the spot intervention is being sterilised through swaps and on-screen purchases of government bonds. This active liquidity management is reflected in higher “others” activity in secondary market G-sec transactions.
According to the latest RBI data, the central bank bought ₹57,210 crore worth of bonds in the secondary market in the previous week.
