The Indian rupee on Thursday strengthened against the dollar, tracking the gains in the local and Asian currencies market. The local unit opened at 63.74 per dollar and touched a high and a low of 63.68 and 63.74, respectively. At 9.07am, the home currency was trading at 63.69, up 0.22% from its previous close of 63.83. The Sensex rose 0.17% or 47.34 points to 27,884.55 points.

The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 7.847% compared with its Wednesday’s close of 7.858%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has lost 1%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $6.76 billion from local equity and $6.03 billion from bond markets.

Most of the Asian currencies were trading higher. Thai baht was up 0.34%, Malaysian ringgit was up 0.32%, Taiwan dollar was up 0.19%, Japanese yen was up 0.16%, South Korean won was up 0.15%, Philippines peso was up 0.14%, Singapore dollar was up 0.14% and Indonesian rupiah was up 0.08%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 95.396, down 0.05% from its previous close of 95.448.

Federal Reserve officials signalled they are unlikely to raise interest rates in June, while leaving open the option of tightening later in the year, Bloomberg reported.

Minutes of their April meeting released on Wednesday also confirmed that the Fed expects growth to pick up after stalling in the first quarter, even as officials fretted about the strength of consumer spending that makes up two-thirds of the economy, it added.

Source:livemint.com