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Hedging against Indian Rupee depreciation
An organic chemicals dealer in India placed an import order worth, say, 100,000 with a German manufacturer. The current spot rate of Euro is, say, Rs.64.05 and at this rate the value of the order is Rs.6,405,000. The importer is worried about sharp depreciation of Indian Rupee against Euro in coming months when the payment is due and brought 100 Euro futures contract (1000 each) on MCX-SX, say, at Rs.64 a Euro. Suppose, at expiry date, Rupee depreciated to Rs.65 the importer would have to pay Rs.6,500,000, but he would gain Rs.100,000 (i.e. Rs.65 - 64 * 100 * 1000) from the futures market and the resultant outflow would be only Rs.6,400,000.
In the short term, firms can make gains or losses from hedging. But the basic purpose of hedging is to protect against excessive losses and to benefit from knowing exactly how much it was going to pay for the import order to avoid the uncertainty associated with future exchange rate movements.
