Rupee Trades At 63.89 Against Dollar

The Indian rupee on Monday was trading flat against the dollar, tracking the losses in the Asian currencies market. At 2.22pm, the rupee was trading at 63.89, up 0.08% from its previous close at 63.94 per dollar. It opened at 63.87 and touched a high and a low of 63.77 and 63.99, respectively.

“The rupee should strengthen to about 63.50 in a couple of days. The India growth story is still intact. Foreign investors were booking profits till now and at this point they may look at entering again, so some equity flows should come in to the country. India’s growth story remains intact, so there should be no problems with inflows,” said N.S. Venkatesh, executive director and chief financial officer, IDBI Bank Ltd.

Traders are cautious ahead of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for March and Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation data for April which will be issued by the government on Tuesday. A Bloomberg poll estimates that IIP will be at 2.9% in March as compared with 5% in February, while CPI will be at 4.9% in April compared with 5.17% in March.

The Sensex rose 1.3%, or 351.19 points, to 27,456.58 points. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have sold $2.29 billion in equity markets in the last 14 out of 15 sessions, except on 21 April when FIIs bought $2.6 billion. In May so far, FIIs have sold $937.48 million in debt and $551 million in equity.

Most of the Asian currencies were trading lower. Singapore dollar was down 0.45%, Thai baht was down 0.35%, Indonesian rupiah was down 0.28%, South Korean won was down 0.27%, Japanese yen was down 0.18%, Malaysian ringgit was down 0.11%, China offshore was down 0.06%.

The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 7.924% compared with its Friday’s close of 7.983%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has lost 1.4%, while FIIs have bought $6.66 billion from local equity and $6.51 billion from bond markets.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 95.054, up 0.26% from its previous close of 94.794.

Source:livemint.com