Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Thursday weakened against the US dollar tracking the losses in its Asian peers after better-than-expected private US employment data boosted the speculation that Federal Reserve may raise interest rates in its March meeting.
The rupee opened at 66.82 a dollar. At 9.15am, the home currency was trading at 66.84, down 0.2% from its Wednesday’s close of 66.70.
Traders are focusing on exit polls for the upcoming assembly elections on Thursday evening and final results on 11 March. Markets will be closed on Monday on occasion of Holi.
The government will issue the index of industrial production data for January on Friday and consumer price inflation data for February on Monday. Wholesale price inflation data for February will be released on Tuesday.
The next US Federal Reserve meeting will be on 14-15 March. Traders are also cautious ahead of the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting and US employment data on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
The benchmark Sensex index fell 0.02% or 6.68 points to 28,895.19. So far this year, it has risen 9%.
The 10-year bond yield was at 6.866% compared to its Wednesday ’s close of 6.859%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions. So far this year, rupee gained 1.8% while foreign institutional investors have bought $2.02 billion and $540.20 million from local equity and debt markets, respectively.
Asian currencies were trading lower. South Korean won was down 0.81%, Taiwan dollar 0.24%, Indonesian rupiah 0.15%, China offshore 0.14%, Malaysian ringgit 0.11%, Japanese yen 0.09%, China renminbi 0.08%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 102.133—up 0.06% from its Monday’s close of 102.07.
On Wednesday night, the ADP employment report showed private payrolls surged by 298,000 last month, far above expectations
