The Indian rupee was trading lower on Friday as the dollar strengthened worldwide following a Malaysia Airlines plane crash in Ukraine that boosted haven assets.

The local currency opened at 60.46 per dollar against its Thursday’s close of 60.18. At 9.12am, the rupee was trading at 60.41, down 0.38% from its previous close, while India’s equity benchmark Sensex index was trading at 25,558.48 points on BSE, down 0.01%.
Most of the Asian currencies were trading lower. The Malaysian ringgit was trading down 0.35%, South Korean won was down 0.28%, Philippines peso fell 0.15%, Japanese yen slipped 0.15%, Thai baht fell 0.03%.
Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has gained 2.29%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $11.4 billion from local equity markets.
The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 8.73%, compared with its Thursday’s close of 8.73%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 80.529, up 0.03% from the previous close of 80.505.

Source:- livemint.com