Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Thursday opened marginally stronger but soon erased all the gains and was trading little changed against the US dollar.
The rupee opened at 64.25 a dollar. At 9.15am, the rupee was trading at 64.31 a dollar, down 0.01% from its Wednesday’s close of 64.30.
Overnight, US Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the third time in six months and maintained its outlook for one more hike in 2017 and additional plans to tighten monetary policy despite growing concerns over weak inflation.
The 10-year bond yield was at 6.502% compared to its previous close of 6.474%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
The benchmark Sensex index gained 0.29% or 91.40 points to 31,247.31. So far this year, it has risen 17%.
So far this year, the rupee has gained 5.65%, while foreign investors bought $8.43 billion and $13.25 billion in local equity and debt markets, respectively.
Asian currencies were trading mixed. Thai baht was up 0.15%, Malaysian ringgit 0.09% and Japanese yen rose 0.04%. However, Taiwan dollar was down 0.07%, Indonesian rupiah 0.07% and Singapore dollar fell 0.05%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 96.894, down 0.05% from its previous close of 96.939.