• Spot rupee ended at 95.71/72 to a dollar compared to 95.60/61 level. The rupee depreciated today despite the government imposing higher excise duty on gold and silver. Equity market benchmarks ended flat despite higher opening.
• DXY is trading higher at 98.47 level, as USD retains most of the post CPI gains amid ongoing US-Iran tensions.
• EURUSD is trading lower today on the back of strong US dollar. Meanwhile, ECB member and Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel stated that it is increasingly likely the ECB will have to raise interest rates due to the geopolitical situation in the Middle East. Meanwhile, data Germany, showed WPI inflation prices surged 6.3 y/y on April 2026, accelerating from a 4.1 growth in the prior month and marking the 17th consecutive increase.
• JPY remained steady near 157 level. Japan’s services sector sentiment index fell to 40.8 in April 2026 from 42.2 in the prior month, missing market expectations of 41.6 and marking the lowest reading since February 2022. Meanwhile, the economic outlook index, which measures sentiment for the months ahead, edged up to 39.4 from March’s more than five-month low of 38.7, indicating some expectations that conditions could stabilize despite persistent uncertainty.
• .Important data releases scheduled today: US: NFIB Small Business Index; ADP Weekly Change; US: CPI m/m; y/y; Core CPI m/m;

Spot rupee opens marginally higher at 95.60 levels against yesterday’s closing 95.64. The Government today hiked the import duty on Gold and Silver from 6 to 15 to conserve foreign exchange. Equity market benchmarks are trading flat with negative bias.

Data released after market hours showed that the annual inflation rate in India inched higher to 3.48 in April 2026 from 3.4 in the previous month, marking the fastest inflation rate in one year, but coming in well below market expectations of 3.8. Food inflation jumped to 4.2 from 3.87. From the previous month, consumer prices rose by 0.27.