Monday, April 22, 2019

INR update: Brent surges, RBI swap window, Inflow pipeline to keep markets guessing


A Washington Post report suggested that the US will this week withdraw all sanction waivers from Iran with a target of zero oil exports from the country. This has driven Brent to 74 levels on account of reduced supply fears. US retail sales last week alleviated concerns of a sharp slowdown in growth there which helped the dollar register gains against the Euro. EURUSD has continued to trade below 200 WMA at 1.1340 and fresh set of week data from the monetary union or any signs of further pessimism from the ECB should lead to a large move lower in the pair.

USDINR has given a gap up opening at 69.75 on account of the jump in Brent prices. Dates of large telecom operators rights issue confirms that companies would want to get done with capital raising / stake sale/ large borrowing plans before the May 23rd election results. Corporate India seems to be lining up to raise dollar funds.

Tomorrow we have the RBI swap window where the Mifor has already got paid and is trading at 6.1% currently as compared to last cut off of 5.95%. This could mean that relatively lesser number of players might be interested in paying Mifor for 3 years which could result in dollar selling from participants who have gathered dollar funds ahead of the swap auction. Tomorrow NCLT will pass a critical order on Arcelor Mittal’s takeover of Essar Steel, this could again result in expectations of large inflow or disappointment depending on the judgment. Overall given the inflow pipeline a runaway move in USDINR looks unlikely unless Brent continues to run higher. Last week after the break of 69.60, the next expected level was 69.85 which has been seen today morning. In the last 30 minutes we suppose that nationalized banks have sold USDINR above 69.80 levels. Given this backdrop I would expect USDINR to remain capped at 70 levels for the next 15 days. CMP 69.85, Range 69.95-69.60.

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