Rupee sees high volatility against USD ahead of US Fed policy decision

MUMBAI: The rupee witnessed high volatility against the US dollar in opening trade on Wednesday ahead of the US Federal Reserve's policy decision.

The local unit opened at 73.70 at the interbank forex market, registering a decline of 7 paise over its last close, but soon pared the losses and was trading at 73.64, unchanged from its previous closing.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.01 per cent to 93.06. "The focus will be on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) tonight. Market participants would expect further clarifications from the US Fed on how average inflation targeting framework would be implemented," said Abhishek Goenka Founder and CEO, IFA Global.

Goenka further said that "the threshold for the US dollar to weaken from current levels is high as a lot of dovishness has already been factored in. One possible trigger could be the Fed predicating keeping rates at close to zero on inflation expectations reaching a certain level".

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex was trading 119.52 points higher at 39,163.87 and the broader NSE Nifty rose 31.35 points to 11,553.15.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,170.89 crore on a net basis on Tuesday, according to provisional exchange data. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 1.48 per cent to USD 41.13 per barrel.