BackRupee opens marginally higher ahead of economic survey
Chief economic adviser Krishnamurthy V. Subramanian will address the media after the Economic Survey 2019-20 is tabled in ParliamentIn early deals, the rupee was at 71.42 a dollar against Thursday's close of 71.49
PremiumThe Indian rupee opened marginally higher against the US dollar ahead of the economic survey, due later on Friday, and the Union Budget on Saturday.
In early deals, the rupee was at 71.42 a dollar against Thursday's close of 71.49. The Indian unit had opened at 71.46 a dollar.
Chief economic adviser Krishnamurthy V. Subramanian will address the media after the Economic Survey 2019-20 is tabled in Parliament by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
A Bloomberg survey expects the government to set its fiscal deficit target for next year at 3.5% of GDP, even though a law on fiscal discipline mandates that it must narrow the shortfall to 3% by March, 2021. For the current fiscal year, the gap is seen at 3.8% against the target of 3.3%.
Traders will also focus on the government’s announcement on additional borrowing for the current fiscal. The market will await data on fiscal deficit for April-December and eight infrastructure industries growth for December, due later today.
Year to date, the rupee has weakened 0.15%, while foreign investors have bought nearly $1.90 billion in Indian equities and sold $1.60 billion in debt.
Yield on the 10-year government bond was at 6.58% compared with its previous close of 6.558%.
The benchmark equity index, Sensex, was up 0.5% or 299.98 points at 41111.87 points. Year to date, the index has lost 0.82%.
Asian currencies were trading mixed. Philippines peso was up 0.3%, Taiwan dollar 0.2%, and Malaysian ringgit 0.05%. However, South Korean won was down 0.26%, and Thai Baht 0.24%, Japanese yen 0.07%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against a basket of major currencies, was at 97.897, up 0.03% from its previous close of 97.867.
(Bloomberg contributed to this story)
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