Rupee Rebounds Most In 7 Months On RBI’s Huge Dollar Selling

Mumbai: The Indian rupee made a sharp comeback on Wednesday, ending a five-day losing streak against the dollar and recovering Rs 1.04 from its previous close during the day on the Reserve’s aggressive dollar selling.

Bank of India (RBI). According to traders, the RBI sold around $5 billion to $6 billion during the day to prevent the rupee from falling.

This was the rupee’s sharpest intraday recovery in more than seven months.

The pressure on the currency is due to uncertainty around the India-US trade deal, ongoing foreign institutional investor (FII) outflows and persistent US dollar buying.

“Today the opening was lower at 91.07 but the RBI, which had been watching from the sidelines for the last one week, suddenly entered the market and helped push the rupee to an intraday high of 89.99 by selling dollars to stop the rupee from depreciating further beyond the 91 level. Initially, there were barely any quotes in the interbank market during the sell-off. The rupee eventually closed at 90.38 and the market remained wary of long-term buying. But overall, with the RBI in the open, dollar/rupee regained “It will rise and with high year-end premiums, the rupee is expected to be between 90.00 and 91.00 tomorrow,” he said.

In the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 91.07 but recovered early in the morning on strong intervention by the RBI and touched an intraday high of 89.98, gaining Rs 1.04 from its previous close of 91.02. Finally, it finished the day at 90.38, with an increase of 64 kuruş compared to the previous close.

“The central bank has stepped in to curb excessive volatility and prevent a disorderly move, signaling its unease at the rapid depreciation beyond recent ranges. While the broader trend for USD-INR continues

Influenced by the trade agreement and capital flow dynamics, today’s action reinforces the role of the RBI as a stabilizer rather than an advocate of fixed levels,” said Abhishek Goenka, founder and chief executive officer of IFA Global.

The rupee on Tuesday fell to an all-time low, breaching the 91 mark, making it one of the weakest major currencies globally this year and the weakest ever in Asia in 2025. In just 13 days, the rupee fell from 90 to the dollar and 91. The rupee is currently the worst-performing Asian currency, with a 6 percent depreciation seen so far in 2025. The data also shows that the current decline in the rupee is the fastest (in terms of days) and scales to 5 per USD. In less than a year, the rupee fell from 85 to 90 per dollar.

Foreign portfolio investors withdrew more than $2.7 billion in the first two weeks of December alone, making the month among the largest periods of net outflows recorded this year. For the year, FPIs have netted over $18 billion in domestic equity sales so far; This is on track to be the worst annual debut in history.

The RBI intervened in the forex market for around $18 billion in June-September and around $10 billion in Oct’25. So, while the total amount was around 30 billion dollars, foreign exchange reserves decreased by 15 billion dollars in the same period, according to the SBI Research report.