After seven consecutive sessions of gains, the Indian rupee weakened marginally against the dollar on Wednesday, tracking losses in the Asian currencies market.

Traders are cautious with the approaching end of the financial year, apart from the next week having only two market working days—30 March and 31 March. Bank transactions will not take place on 1 April due to annual closure of accounts, while 2 and 3 April will be bank holidays on account of Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday, respectively. Markets are also closed on regular weekend holidays on 4 and 5 April.

At 2.47pm, the home currency was trading at 62.32, down 0.12% against its previous close of 62.25. The local unit opened at 62.32 per dollar and touched a high and a low of 62.27 and 62.36, respectively. The BSE’s benchmark equity index Sensex fell 0.26%, or 72.95 points, to 28,088.77 points.

Major Asian currencies were trading lower against the dollar. The Indonesian rupiah was down 0.56%, Malaysian ringgit 0.46%, Philippines peso 0.22%, Thai baht 0.18%, China renminbi 0.12%, Singapore dollar 0.1% and China offshore spot 0.06%. The South Korean won was up 0.34%, Taiwan dollar 0.17%, and Japanese yen 0.11%.

The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 7.77% compared with its Tuesday’s close of 7.75%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has gained 1.3%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $5.62 billion from local equity and $6.70 billion from bond markets.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 96.979, down 0.22% from the previous close of 97.193.

Source:livemint.com