Official Resistance Still Evident Ahead Of 83.00, Q4 GDP On Tap Tomorrow

INR has been resilient in recent trade, with the USD/INR respecting narrow ranges as the Rupee outperforms its Asia peers. The INR NEER continues to climb, now back at 67.30 (J.P. Morgan Index), highs back to early Dec last year.

• Headlines crossed earlier that the RBI was likely selling USDs via State Banks (Reuters). We got to 82.95, but now sit slightly lower (last at 82.91/92). Clearly there is still some resistance to a break through of 83.00. Technically the pair remains in a bullish trend, bulls still target high from October at 83.17.
• Barclays indicated in a note, story linked here, that the RBI is likely selling USD to support the INR as they defend 83 handle. FX Reserves dropped by ~$14bn in the two weeks prior to Feb17.
• Last week to Thursday, global investors bought a net of ~$53mn in Indian Equities.
• On the wires tomorrow we have Q4 GDP, the Bloomberg Survey median estimate is for 4.7% growth falling from the prior read of 6.3%.