Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Thursday closed weaker against US dollar ahead of key macro economic data due later on Friday.
The home currency closed at 63.67 a dollar, down 0.11% from its Wednesday’s close of 63.60. The rupee opened at 63.67 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 63.64 and 63.82, respectively.
Traders are cautious ahead of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for November and Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) for December due to be released on 12 January. According to Bloomberg analysts’ estimates, IIP will be at 4% in November from 2.2% a month ago, while CPI will be at 5.04% in December from 4.88% a month ago.
According to a Bloomberg report, Chinese officials have recommended slowing or halting purchases of Treasuries, fuelling expectations that the world’s largest foreign-exchange reserves holder may favour a shift toward other currencies.
The benchmark Sensex rose 0.20%, or 70.42 points, to 34,503.49. So far in 2018, it gained 1.5%.
So far this year, rupee gained 0.4% while foreign investors bought $402.60 million and $363.10 million in equities and bonds, respectively. In the year 2017, the rupee gained 6.35% and Sensex rose 28%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $7.73 billion and $23.27 billion in equity and debt, respectively.
The 10-year bond yield ended at 7.26% compared to its previous close of 7.26%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Asian currencies were trading higher. Malaysian ringgit was up 0.30%, Thai baht 0.27%, Indonesian rupiah 0.18%, China offshore 0.09%. However, Japanese yen was down 0.23%, South Korean won 0.04%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 92.271, down 0.07% from its previous close of 92.332.