Hold on to your Omani Rials, Indian Rupee value down, may dip further

Muscat: Indian expatriates in Oman are remitting money back home as much as they can as the Indian rupee has depreciated further on Tuesday.
The exchange rate of Indian Rupee per Omani Rial crossed Rs207 on Tuesday morning.

The exact value of Indian Rupee per Omani Rial reached 207.96, according to the currency converter XE.

The exchange houses were, however, offering Rs 207 per Rial in the early hours on Tuesday.

A higher Rial can mean bigger remittance volumes for expatriates. “This is a good time for people to remit money home because the rates are at their best,” confirmed an official of the money exchange in Ruwi.

He also said: “We expect this to go up in the first week of August when everybody gets their salary,” the official said.

“I am waiting for my salary, which will come next week,” said R Bhattacharjee, who wanted to remit a large sum last month, but decided to wait for another month. “Thank God I waited and now I will be able to get more money,” he said.

On Tuesday, the rupee hit yet another historical low and touched the key psychological level of 80 against the US Dollar.

At 9.40 am, Sensex was at 54,389.79 points, down 131.36 points or 0.24 per cent, whereas Nifty was at 16,252.95 points, down 25.55 points or 0.16 per cent.

Among the Nifty 50 stocks, 29 were in the green and the rest in the red, National Stock Exchange data showed.

Experts, however, said that it may fall further and may cross USD 81 in the next few weeks. “This means there are chances that it may cross Rs 210 per Omani Rial,” an exchange house based in Muscat said.

Consistent depreciation in the value of the rupee has been weighing on the domestic stocks. A depreciation in the rupee is typically negative for foreign investors.

“We expect rupee to remain volatile this week and could hold its key support level of 80.5500 on a closing basis,” said brokerage Prithvi Finmart.
Further, reports suggest that phone and gadget maker Apple planning to slow hiring and spending is likely to have subdued stocks in India and other Asian markets.

“Asian shares are subdued Tuesday after Apple Inc’s plans to slow hiring highlighted concerns that aggressive monetary tightening to tackle inflation threatens an economic downturn,” said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.