The Indian rupee on Monday closed at over three-week high against the US dollar, after local equity markets gained nearly 500 points. Gains in the global equity and currency markets also helped the rupee. This was the tenth out of 13 trading sessions when the rupee closed higher.

The home currency closed at 67.14—a level last seen on 17 June, up 0.35% from its previous close of 67.37. The local currency opened at 67.13 a dollar and touched a high of 67.06, a level last seen on 17 June.

India’s benchmark Sensex index rose 1.84%, or 499.79 points, to close at 27,626.69. So far this year, Sensex has gained 5.78%.

Most of the Asian currencies closed higher, bolstered by election results in Japan and Australia and shrugging off concerns that a strong US jobs report might push the US Federal Reserve closer to hiking rates.

South Korean won rose 1.29%, Malaysian ringgit 1.01%, Indonesian rupiah 0.56%, Taiwan dollar 0.28%, and Thai baht 0.17%. However, Japanese yen was down 1.84%, Philippines peso 0.26% and Singapore dollar fell 0.21%.

The government will issue the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation data for May and June, respectively, on 12 July, while Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation data for June on 14 July.

According to Bloomberg analyst estimates, IIP for May will be -0.4% compared with -0.8% a month ago, while CPI will be at 5.79% versus 5.76% last month. WPI will be at 1.3% in June against 0.79% in May.

So far this year, the rupee is down 1.46%, while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have bought $3.01 billion in equity and sold $1.80 billion in debt markets.

Meanwhile, India’s 10-year bond yield closed unchanged from Friday’s close of 7.385%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 96.562, up 0.27% from its previous close of 96.302.

Source:.livemint.com