US Dollar

According to it, during FYs 2008-17, India invested about $1.1 trillion on infrastructure. "However, the challenge is to step up infrastructure investment substantially. "Keeping this objective in view, National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) was launched with projected infrastructure investment of around Rs 111 lakh crore ($1.5 trillion) during FY 2020-2025 to provide world-class infrastructure across the country, and improve the quality of life for all citizens," the Survey, tabled in Parliament on Monday, said.

In the early days of the year, corporations have been racing to issue debt. Their aim is to tap the market before the Federal Reserve starts hiking interest rates, which have been near zero since the start of the pandemic, the report said.

The RBI is known to enter the markets via intermediaries to either sell or buy US dollars to keep the rupee in a stable orbit. However, the decline might trigger again on the back of continuous selling by FIIs in the secondary market. Lately, growing cautiousness over a US Fed's tapering measures as well as scare around the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 impacted investors sentiments.

Besides, high YoY trade deficit along with new US tapering measures will hamper any appreciation move. However, the downside will be capped by lower oil prices along with probable RBI interventions. The RBI is known to enter the markets via intermediaries to either sell or buy US dollars to keep the rupee in a stable orbit.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.30 per cent at 96.3315 in late trading, Xinhua news agency reported. US President Joe Biden on Monday said, "Sooner or later, we're going to see cases of this new variant in the US. This variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic."

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.75 per cent at 96.0468 in late trading. The discovery of a new Covid-19 variant in South Africa sent jitters across global markets on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.39 per cent at 96.8639 in late trading on Wednesday. US personal consumption expenditure price index in October grew 0.6 per cent month on month, higher than 0.4 per cent of expansion in the previous month, according to the data issued by the US Department of Commerce on Wednesday morning.

They said that "millions of Pakistani rupees" are brought in to Kandahar from Pakistan and are exchanged to US dollars and are taken back to the neighbouring country, the report said. The money changers said the demand for the US dollar is increasing in the market and that most of their customers buy the US currency by selling Pakistani rupees. "Some Pakistani investors buy the US dollars from markets and in exchange they inject Pakistani rupees into the markets," said Haji Babai, a money changer, the report said.

After only a day of breather, sellers were back in action, which was also triggered by anxiety regarding the rupee as the KSE-100 shed 908 points on Wednesday to close at 44,366.74, down 2 per cent.

"Global cues such as a strong US dollar as well as a weak CNH (Renminbi Offshore) will weaken the Indian rupee further. It is expected to trade between 74.25 to 74.60 with an depreciation bias," said Sajal Gupta, Head, Forex and Rates at Edelweiss Securities. On Friday, the rupee marked its biggest weekly loss in one-and-a-half months, although it was better than its Asian peers.