Rupee touches one-week high on report of RBI plan to ease oil refiners’ dollar bids

The Indian rupee rose to a one-week high on Friday after a Reuters report said the central bank took steps to curb the impact of dollar buying by state-run oil refiners, which traders said supported the currency.

The rupee rose 0.5% to 92.7250 per dollar as of 10:50 a.m. IST, its ‌strongest level since ⁠April ⁠10.

The central bank has urged state-run oil refiners to tap a special credit line for foreign exchange needs while curbing spot dollar purchases, Reuters reported post market hours on Thursday.

The measure marks a fresh deployment of crisis era tools to support the rupee which has been battered by concerns over high energy prices and weak capital flows.

A combination of regulatory measures ⁠by the ‌central bank – including caps on banks’ net open FX positions, curbs on banks offering corporates NDFs and the special facility ⁠for oil refiners – has helped boost the rupee about 2.5% from its record low hit in late March.

Along with earlier measures like tighter position limits and curbs on NDF, “this signals one clear message: the RBI is actively defending the rupee in a challenging environment,” said Amit Pabari, managing director at FX advisory firm CR Forex. Separately, Reuters also reported on Friday that Indian banks have halted gold ‌and silver imports amid a delay in government clearance. Meanwhile, global markets are keeping their eyes peeled for developments related to Iran war peace talks.

A 10-day ceasefire ⁠between Lebanon and Israel went into effect on Thursday and President Donald Trump said the next meeting between the United States and Iran may take place over the weekend.

Asian currencies were mostly range-bound while Brent Crude futures fell 1% to $98 per barrel.

“If diplomacy fails and optimism fades, USD could stay supported for longer, while recent Asian FX gains look more vulnerable amid still high energy prices,” MUFG said in a note.