Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Thursday was trading marginally higher against the US dollar in the opening trade.
The local currency opened at 66.94 a dollar.
At 9.15am, the home currency was trading at 66.93, up 0.05% from its previous close of 66.97.
According to minutes released on Wednesday, four out of six members of the monetary policy committee favoured changing Reserve Bank of India’s policy stance to neutral from accommodative due to higher core inflation.
India’s benchmark Sensex index fell 0.04% or 10.55 points to 28,903.59. So far this year, Sensex has risen 8.4%.
India’s 10-year bond yield rose to 6.937% compared to its Wednesday’s close of 6.939%.
Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has gained 1.43%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $1.28 billion and $580.70 million from local equity and debt markets, respectively.
Most of the Asian currencies were trading higher. South Korean won was up 0.28%, Taiwan dollar 0.15%, Malaysian ringgit 0.09%, Thai baht 0.06%, Philippines peso 0.06%, Indonesian rupiah 0.04%.
However, Singapore dollar was down 0.21%, China offshore 0.11%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 101.36, up 0.14% from its previous close of 101.22.
The minutes of the most recent Federal Open Market Committee meeting showed members were concerned about the appreciation of the greenback, while seeing a need for a rate hike “fairly soon” if the economy stays on track.
