MUMBAI, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee slipped in early trading on Wednesday after a sharp rally in the previous session, as corporates stepped up hedging activity, while traders focused on the scale of demand for the RBI's FX swap slated for later in the day.

The rupee was at 90.41 per dollar as of 09:50 a.m. IST, down 0.16% from its previous close. The currency had soared more than 1% on Tuesday after the U.S. and India announced a long-awaited trade deal.

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On the day, similar to the previous session, corporates stepped in to buy dollars. However, traders reckon that the positive sentiment post the trade deal and likely foreign portfolio inflows into local stocks should limit pressure on the currency.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India will conduct a $10 billion 3-year dollar-rupee buy/sell swap auction on Wednesday, which is part of its measures to ensure adequate rupee liquidity in the banking system.

"With the spot (USD/INR) lower, it may see keen participation. However, the RBI may not be too aggressive given that with the India-U.S. trade deal, it may get an opportunity to buy dollars on account of inflows," said Abhishek Goenka, chief executive at FX advisory firm IFA Global.

The firm expects the rupee to hold an appreciation bias in the near-term.

Meanwhile, stocks of Indian information technology (.NIFTYIT) , opens new tab firms dropped over 5% after U.S. artificial intelligence company Anthropic launched workplace productivity tools, intensifying worries of disruption in the sector.

Broader equity benchmarks, as a result, were nearly flat on the day after rallying the most since May 2025 in the previous session.

The dollar index was steady at 97.4 while Asian currencies were flat to modestly stronger.

https://www.reuters.com/world/india/rupee-may-dip-after-us-india-deal-rally-large-corporates-seen-mopping-up-dollars-2026-02-04/