BackRupee closes marginally weaker against dollar at 59.90
The rupee opened at 59.82 a dollar and rose to as much as 59.5988 on continued inflow into the Indian equities market
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Mumbai: The Indian rupee erased its morning gains and ended marginally weaker against the dollar after Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) governor Raghuram Rajan said that RBI will slowly remove curbs on gold imports and they have plenty of reserves to counter forex volatility.
“There has been all round buying in the last few minutes of trade. State-owned banks have also bought, which is likely on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India as it attempts to shore up its foreign exchange reserves," said a dealer with a French bank.
The rupee ended at 59.90 per dollar, down 0.01% from previous close. The local currency opened at 59.82 a dollar against its Friday’s close of 59.89. In the intra-day trade, rupee strengthened to as much as 59.5988 a dollar on continued dollar flow into the Indian equities market.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading flat at 80.09, from the previous close of 80.094.
Asian currencies showed a mixed trend with the Taiwan dollar gaining 0.23% and the Phillipine peso dropping 0.3%.
BSE’s benchmark Sensex ended at its record high for the sixth consecutive session, of 22,551.49 points, up 0.47%.
So far this year, the rupee has risen 3.18% while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have bought local equities worth $3.61 billion in the Indian market.
However, the yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond rose to its February level ahead of the first borrowing programme scheduled on Friday. The government will borrow ₹ 16,000 crore from the market, as part of its first-half borrowing target of ₹ 3.68 trillion.
Traders fear a new 10-year benchmark will be introduced soon and the existing one will lose favour in the market.
The yield on the 10-year bond ended at 8.961%, compared with its previous close of 8.803%.
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