Rupee recovers on offshore NDF, may avoid record low when onshore reopens

By Nimesh Vora

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Indian rupee on Wednesday managed to recover against the U.S. dollar in the offshore non-deliverable forward (NDF) market on likely intervention by the Reserve Bank of India and recovery in the Chinese yuan.

The USD/INR one-month NDF was quoting at 83.24/83.26, which on a spot basis is around 83.15/83.17.

The one-month NDF climbed to 83.54 earlier in the day after hitting a high of 83.59 on Tuesday. At 83.59 on the one-month NDF, the spot implied is around 83.50, which would be a record low for the rupee.

Local forex markets are closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The RBI was likely there in offshore "a few times yesterday", a currency trader at a Singapore-based hedge fund said.

"It is likely that the RBI is there today, taking into account the price action. I reckon the yuan (recovery) has helped out a bit too."

The offshore yuan was up about 0.2% to the dollar at 7.3078. The Chinese currency had dropped to 7.3385 earlier in the session, the lowest since November.

China's central bank on Tuesday unexpectedly cut key policy rates to boost a sputtering economic recovery, impacting the yuan's demand. The Asian country's spending and activity data for July was weaker than expected.

The rupee and other Asian currencies have struggled amid the rise in U.S. yields. The 10-year U.S. yield on Tuesday hit 4.27%, the highest in nearly 10 months, following robust U.S. retail sales data.

(Reporting by Nimesh Vora; Editing by Sohini Goswami)