Rupee snaps five-day fall as Fitch upgrade boosts sentiment

By Swati Bhat

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee rallied on Wednesday, snapping a five-session losing streak, as an upgrade by Fitch Ratings helped calm investor nerves after a series of record lows were hit in recent sessions on the back of massive debt outflows.

Fitch returned India's sovereign ratings outlook to "stable" from "negative" a year after its initial downgrade, citing government measures to contain the budget deficit and the progress made in improving investment and economic growth.

Foreign funds have sold more than $3 billion worth of domestic debt in the last 14 trading sessions and played a key roll in pushing the rupee down 4 percent in that period. The unit is down more than 7 percent since the start of May and is the worst performing Asian currency during this phase.

"The Fitch upgrade seems likely to change the rupee's fortune for now going by the movement we saw today," said Ashtosh Raina, head of foreign exchange trading at HDFC Bank in Mumbai.

"Some positive sentiment should creep into the market now after the Fitch announcement," he added.

The partially convertible rupee closed at 57.79/80 per dollar, 1 percent stronger compared with 58.39/40 on Tuesday. The unit rose to as high as 57.7250 during the session on the back of the upgrade.

The unit had hit a record low of 58.98 on Tuesday before a moderate central bank intervention and comments by government officials helped the unit gain some ground.

"There was dollar selling from all quarters after the Fitch upgrade. However, rupee should see some resistance at the previous life low of 57.30 initially," said Hari Chandramgethen, head of foreign exchange trading at South Indian Bank.

"Direction post that will depend on the dollar moves and government action. I, however, have changed my view from negative to positive on the rupee for now. All upticks will find sellers for the dollar," he added.

In the offshore non-deliverable forwards, the one-month contract was at 58.19 while the three-month was at 58.83.

In the currency futures market, the most-traded near-month dollar/rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange, the MCX-SX and the United Stock Exchange all closed around 57.95 with a total traded volume of $8.13 billion. (Editing by Jijo Jacob)