The Indian rupee weakened against the US dollar on Monday tracking losses in the local equity market. At 2 pm, the domestic currency was trading at 71.39 a dollar, down 0.05 per cent from Friday’s close of 71.36. The Indian unit opened at 71.34 a dollar.
In the year so far, the rupee has weakened 2.27 per cent. Foreign investors have bought nearly $14.37 billion in Indian equities and $3.69 billion in debt. The 10-year government bond yield was at 6.507 per cent from its previous close of 6.506 per cent. Benchmark equity index Sensex was down 0.22 per cent or 90.99 at 41,484.15.
Asian currencies were trading higher. Malaysian ringgit gained 0.44 per cent, South Korean won 0.44 per cent, Thai Baht fell 0.33 per cent, Japanese Yen 0.24 per cent, Singapore Dollar 0.23 per cent, Indonesian Rupiah 0.19 per cent, Taiwan Dollar 0.18 per cent, China Offshore 0.16 per cent, China renminbi 0.11 per cent and Hong Kong dollar 0.014 per cent. However, the Philippines peso lost 0.06 per cent. The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against a basket of major currencies, was at 96.786, down 0.14 per cent from its previous close of 96.919.
Read EquityPandit’s Nifty Outlook for the Week