The Indian rupee on Wednesday was trading marginally higher against the US dollar from its previous close. At 2.10pm, the home currency was trading at 66.08, up 0.02% from its previous close of 66.10. The local unit opened at 66.23 per dollar and touched a high and a low of 66.06 and 66.38, respectively.

The benchmark Sensex index fell 0.31% or 80.69 points to 25,951.69 points. So far in August, Sensex has fallen 7.4% or 2,080 points, the steepest since November 2011 and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have sold $1.38 billion, the steepest since June 2013. So far this month, the rupee has fallen 3.1%; August has been the worst month for the currency in at least two years.

The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 7.801% compared with its Tuesday’s close of 7.818%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has lost 4.6%, while FIIs have bought $5.68 billion from local equity and $6.33 billion from bond markets.

Most Asian currencies were trading mixed. Malaysian ringgit was down 0.91%, Japanese yen 0.63%, Indonesian rupiah 0.47%, Taiwan dollar 0.26%, Thai Baht 0.16%, Philippine peso 0.11%. However, South Korean won was up 0.82%, China offshore 0.38%, Singapore dollar 0.34%, China Renminbi 0.06%.

Asian markets were trading mixed, too. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down1.5%, China’s Shanghai Composite was trading 1.3% lower and Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average was up 3.2%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 94.161, down 0.39% from its previous close of 94.53.

Source:livemint.com