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Rupee hits fresh 28-month low of 67.44 against US dollar |
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Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Friday hit a fresh 28-month low against the US dollar. The home currency has traded lower in seven out of the last 10 trading sessions.
The local currency opened at 67.35 per US dollar and touched a low of 67.44—a level last seen on 4 September 2013. At 10.52am, the rupee was trading at 67.43, down 0.2% from its previous close of 67.30. The rupee has fallen 7.3% during this fiscal year.
India’s benchmark equity index, BSE Sensex, was trading at 24,713.22 points, down 0.21% or 51.62 points. Since 1 January, the Sensex has fallen 5.5%, or 1,400 points.
Asian currencies were trading higher. Taiwan dollar 0.28%, Malaysian ringgit 0.26%, South Korean won 0.18%, Philippines peso 0.17%, Indonesian rupiah 0.13%, Thai baht 0.13%, Japanese yen 0.1%. However, China offshore was down 0.24%, Singapore dollar 0.17%.
The 10 year bond yield gained for the sixth consecutive sessions as the traders batted that the Reserve Bank of India may not cut rates in next policy which will be on 2 February due to higher inflation.
The yield on India’s current 10-year benchmark bond stood at 7.796% compared with its Thursday’s close of 7.791%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Since 1 April, the Sensex is down over 11.4%, while foreign institutional investors have sold $3.24 billion from local equity markets and bought $1.11 billion from the debt market.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 98.982, down 0.11% from its previous close of 99.089.
Overnight, St. Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard said that the continued rout on global oil markets has caused a worrisome drop in the US inflation expectations, which may make further rate hikes hard to justify, Reuters reported.
Source : livemint.com
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