The Indian rupee on Monday weakened against the dollar, tracking the losses in the Asian currencies market. The local unit opened at 63.62 per dollar and touched a high and low of 63.62 and 63.59, respectively. At 9.08am, the home currency was trading at 63.62, down 0.15% from its previous close of 63.52.

 

The Sensex fell 0.21% or 59.56 points to 27,897.84 points. The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 7.862% compared with its Friday’s close of 7.857%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

 

Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has lost 0.75%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $6.80 billion from local equity and $6.02 billion from bond markets.

 

Most of the Asian currencies were trading lower. South Korean won was down 0.81%, Malaysian ringgit was down 0.51%, Thai baht was down 0.2%, Indonesian rupiah was down 0.14%, Philippines peso was down 0.11%, Singapore dollar was down 0.11% and Japanese yen was down 0.1%.

 

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 99.285, up 0.28% from its previous close of 96.014.

 

On Friday, Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen said a rate hike would be warranted this year if the economy keeps improving as expected.

 

Source:livemint.com