Mumbai: The Indian rupee and bond prices on Wednesday advanced after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept its interest rates unchanged, while maintaining a neutral monetary policy stance.
At 2.40pm, the rupee was trading at 64.14, up 0.16% from its previous close of 64.25. It opened at 64.11 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 64.04 and 64.19, respectively.
India’s benchmark Sensex index fell 0.15% or 52.67 points to 34,143.27. So far this year, the Sensex has risen 0.5%.
India’s 10-year bond yield was at 7.552% from its Monday’s close of 7.568%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
The monetary policy committee of the central bank decided to keep repo rate—at which the RBI infuses liquidity in the banking system—on hold at 6%.
All but one of 15 economists surveyed by Mint expected RBI to keep the repo rate unchanged. One economist expects a 25 basis point hike (a basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point).
Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has fallen 0.3%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $2.25 billion from local equity and $2.06 billion in debt markets.