Overview

• The currency briefly strengthened to 88.74 in early trade on optimism around equities and expected IPO inflows.
• The close at 88.82 followed renewed pressure from a firmer dollar index near 98.4 and Brent crude near $65.6.
• Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs 1,583.37 crore on Friday, reinforcing outflow pressure.
• RBI data showed foreign exchange reserves fell by $2.334 billion to $700.236 billion in the week ended September 26.
• The Sensex rose 582.95 points to 81,790.12 and the Nifty gained 183.40 to 25,077.65, while traders described rupee trading as tight and range-bound, with one analyst expecting a near-term 88.50–89 band.