Rupee closes 11 paise weaker at 60.18 as state-owned banks buy dollars
Intermittent dollar sales by foreign banks prevented a sharp fall
The Indian rupee weakened against the US currency on Friday amid dollar purchases by state-run banks even as intermittent dollar sales by foreign banks prevented a sharp fall.
The Indian currency closed at 60.18 per dollar, down 0.18% from the previous close. It had earlier opened at 60.33 a dollar against its Thursday’s close of 60.07 and touched a high of 60.14 per dollar.
“We opened with a gap because Asian markets were down and state-owned banks have bought dollars today which has kept the rupee weak," said a dealer with a private bank.
BSE’s benchmark Sensex closed at 22,628.96 points, down 0.38%.
The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond ended at 8.945%, compared with its Thursday’s close of 9.001%. It touched a high and a low of 9.036% and 8.944%, respectively.
“There is demand at the higher end of the yield, so I do not expect the 10-year bond to go above 9.15%. We may be in the broad 8.85% to 9.10% for sometime now," the dealer cited above said.
The rupee has risen 2.7% this year as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought local equities worth $4.76 billion in the Indian market.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 79.438, up 0.07% from the previous close of 79.383.
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