The Reserve Bank of India likely stepped into the foreign exchange market on Thursday, four traders told Reuters, aimed at shoring up the rupee that had slipped to a near three-week low in the previous session.
The rupee was on track to open around the 95.15 per dollar level on Thursday, but minutes before the local spot market opened at 9:00 a.m. IST, it jumped swiftly on the interbank order matching system FX_IDC:USDINR to as high as 94.75 per dollar.
Traders cited dollar sales from state-run banks, most likely on behalf of the RBI. The local unit FX_IDC:USDINR was last at 94.9675, up 0.3% from its closing level on Wednesday.