India Rupee At Over 7-Month High As Trade Gap Narrows

The rupee settled at 68.5275 against 69.09 at the previous close. The local unit moved in 68.5275 -68.9475 per dollar band intra-day.
The Indian rupee surged to a fresh more-than-seven-month high, as the nation’s trade deficit narrowed sharply and continuous foreign fund inflows into local equity and bond lifted investor sentiment. Rupee has seen significant appreciation on back of foreign portfolio inflows. The appreciation is also helped by dovish Federal reserve and stable global market environment. We believe these are good levels for the importers to enter and exporters can panic less as we might see a reversal in April, if not earlier as we near the elections.

The dollar licked its wounds on Monday after soft U.S. data increased bets the Federal Reserve will cut rates later this year while the pound hovered near nine-months high on hopes for a delay in Britain's exit from the European Union. The dollar's index against a basket of six major currencies edged down 0.1% to 96.481, after having shed 0.81% last week, the biggest loss since late August.
The euro hit a two-week high against the dollar in early trading in Europe Monday, as the greenback continues to suffer from weak economic data out of the U.S. on Friday that strengthened expectations for a Federal Reserve interest rate cut later this year. The euro was at $1.1349, just off a two-week high posted earlier.

Gold prices slipped on Monday in Asia ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting that is expected to shed more light on the outlook for U.S. interest rate hikes this year. Gold were down 0.3% at $1,298.65.
Oil prices fell on Monday in Asia after recording their best weekly gains in a month last week. Brent Oil Futures were down 0.2% to $67.00 on Monday after recording a gain of approximately 2.1% last week.

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