: The Indian rupee on Friday strengthened against the US dollar, as the government tries to contain military tensions.

At 2.05pm, the rupee was trading at 66.59 against the US dollar, up 0.4% from its previous close of 66.86. The home currency opened at 66.82 and touched a high of 66.57 a dollar.

Traders are cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) bi-monthly policy next week. The monetary policy panel is to meet on 3-4 October and the decision will be published on website on 4 October at 2.30pm. According to Bloomberg’s analyst poll estimates, the RBI may not cut rates on 4 October.

The government will issue fiscal deficit data for April-August after 4.30pm on Friday.

“Yesterday (Thursday) we saw weakening of rupee after the news about the surgical strikes by the Indian Army. This is getting wound down with markets getting back to global trends,” said Anindya Bannerjee, an analyst with Kotak Securities.

India’s benchmark Sensex index fell 0.13% or 35.44 points to 27,792.09. So far this year, it has gained 6.55%.

The benchmark 10-year government bond yields was trading at 6.834% from Thursday’s close of 6.863%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

The rupee is down 0.65% till date this year, while foreign institutional investors have bought $7.03 billion in equity and $42.80 million in debt markets.

Asian currencies declined as regional equities slid amid increasing concerns over Deutsche Bank’s finances.

Malaysian ringgit was down 0.36%, Malaysian ringgit 0.34%, Indonesian rupiah 0.31%, South Korean won 0.21%, China offshore 0.12%, Singapore dollar 0.06%, Thai baht 0.05% and China renminbi 0.04%. However, Taiwan dollar was up 0.09% and Japanese yen gained 0.05%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 95.708, up 0.18% from its previous close of 95.353.

Sources:livemint.com