The Indian rupee on Thursday weakened past 70 mark again to hit a eight week low against the US dollar, tracking declines in other Asian currencies amid continued strength in the dollar. Last time, rupee went past the 70-mark was on 11 March.
At 9.08 am, the rupee was trading at 70.07 a dollar - a level last seen on 8 March, down 0.21% from its previous close of 69.87. The home currency opened at 70.02 a dollar.
The 10-year bond yield was trading at 7.442%, from its Wednesday's close of 7.425%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Scotiabank says it is moderately bullish on the rupee on account of global reflation policies, although USD/INR is likely to rally through 70 temporarily amid broad dollar strength, Bloomberg reported.
Traders are awaiting RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das' lecture who will speak at CD Deshmukh Memorial.
So far this year, the rupee has weakened 0.3%, while foreign investors have bought $9.20 billion in equity and sold $28.80 million in debt market.
India's benchmark index Sensex rose 0.19% to 39130.27 points in pre-open trade. Year to date, it is up 8.28%.
Most other Asian currencies were trading lower. South Korean won was down 0.59%, Indonesian rupiah 0.33%, Malaysian ringgit 0.15%, Philippines peso 0.13%, China renminbi 0.1%, Taiwan dollar 0.07%. However, Japanese yen was up 0.23%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 98.028, down 0.15% from its previous close of 98.173.
Posted on :
Apr 25, 2019