The rupee opened at 66.12 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 66.05 and 66.22, respectively


Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Thursday strengthened against the US dollar after local equity markets gained over 300 points.

At 2.04pm, the home currency was trading at 66.17, up 0.2% from its previous close of 66.30. The local unit opened at 66.12 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 66.05 and 66.22, respectively.

The benchmark Sensex index rose 1.23%, or 312.49 points, to 25,795.01. The Sensex fell in 15 out of 21 sessions. Since 19 October till date, Sensex fell 5.7% or 1,600 points.

Most Asian currencies were trading higher. Malaysian ringgit was up 1.2%, South Korean won 0.91%, Taiwan dollar 0.63%, Japanese yen 0.34%, Philippines peso 0.34%, Indonesian rupiah 0.32%, Singapore dollar 0.31%, Thai baht 0.14% and China offshore 0.09%.

The US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has suggested that most US policy makers believed the conditions for a rate hike could well be met by the next FOMC meeting, but said any hike in rates would be gradual, Reuters reported.

The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 7.663% compared with its Wednesday’s close of 7.684%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

About 17,000 employees of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are on strike on Thursday to demand better retirement benefits and to oppose reforms to the central bank, raising the prospect of disruptions to banks and markets.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities in nine out of 11 sessions. Since 30 October to 17 November, FIIs sold $710.89 million in equities. Since 27 October to 17 November, FIIs sold $526.23 million in debt.

In fiscal year 2016 so far, FIIs have sold $2.11 billion in equity, the steepest selling since fiscal year 2009. In FY16, FIIs were the net sellers in equity for five out of eight months.

Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has lost 4.6%, while FIIs have bought $3.89 billion from local equity and $8.48 billion from bond markets.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 99.354, down 0.31% from its previous close of 99.652.

The Bank of Japan left its monetary stimulus unchanged on Thursday, indicating that Japan’s second recession since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office isn’t enough to alter governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s view that the inflationary trend is improving, Bloomberg reported.