Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Monday erased all the morning gains and was trading marginally lower against the US dollar.
At 2pm, the rupee was trading at 64.93, down 0.14% from its Friday’s close of 64.85. The rupee opened at 64.79 a dollar and touched a high of 64.76, a level last seen on 19 October 2015.
Traders are cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) bi-monthly two-day policy meeting on 5-6 April. According to a Mint poll, RBI is likely to hold rates and retain its neutral stance in the policy.
Traders are likely to take more cues from the meeting between China’s president Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump on Thursday and US non-farm payrolls data on Friday.
So far this year, foreign institutional investors have bought $6.16 billion and $4.40 billion from local equity and debt markets, respectively.
The 10-year bond yield was trading at 6.59%, compared to its previous close of 6.68%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
The benchmark Sensex index rose 0.87% or 257.33 points to 29,877.83. So far this year, it has risen 12%.
Asian currencies were trading higher. South Korean won was up 0.56%, Thai baht 0.16%, Taiwan dollar 0.1%, Singapore dollar 0.08%, Philippines peso 0.06% and Japanese yen 0.05%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 100.39, up 0.05% from its previous close of 100.35.
