The Indian rupee traded little change on Friday, on course for its biggest monthly gain since February.
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The Indian rupee traded
little change on Friday, on course for its biggest monthly gain
since February on the back of regulatory measures rolled out to
support the currency by curbing dollar demand.
The currency was at 95.25 per dollar as of 11:30
a.m. IST, near its previous close at 95.26.
The rupee is up about 0.6 per cent in October, putting it on track
for its best month since the announcement of a US-India trade
agreement breakthrough in February that boosted it before the
breakout of the Iran war hit the currency from March onward.
The Reserve Bank of India stepped up policy support for the
rupee earlier this month by re-routing oil-linked dollar demand
away from the spot market and making it more expensive to buy
protection against rupee weakness for large current account
exposures and for banks hedging their own assets and
liabilities.
On the day, traders pointed to muted flows, with speculative
interest also limited heading into the weekend even as elevated
oil prices kept the bias to the negative side.
MILDER INTERVENTIONS
Over recent sessions, the rupee has drawn support from
market interventions by the Reserve Bank of India that traders
have characterised as smaller than those seen in past months.
Three other FX traders at Mumbai-based lenders said that the
RBI’s intention appears to be to signal to the market its
limited tolerance for sharp rupee weakness while also limiting
the drawdown in foreign exchange reserves.
India’s FX reserves have declined about $65
billion since hitting a record high of $785 billion in late
August. Reserve data for the week ended October 23 is due later
on Friday.
Most analysts see India’s reserves position as strong at the
moment, but analysts at BofA Global Research have also flagged
that persistent FX pressure may raise the reliance on monetary
policy to support the rupee going forward.
“The smaller interventions are also likely an impact of
moving oil demand away from the market, removing the need for
heavy action,” one of the three Mumbai-based traders said.
Published on October 30, 2026
