Mumbai: The Indian rupee was trading little changed against the US dollar ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s policy statement due later on Wednesday.
The rupee opened at 65.23 a dollar. At 9.15am, the home currency was trading at 65.20 a dollar, the same level as its Tuesday’s close.
The US Fed is expected to raise interest rates on Wednesday, and thereafter two more rate hikes this year. A rate hike by the Fed at its current meeting is more or less a certainty and is already priced in by the markets, Mint reports.
Benchmark Sensex index rose 0.27%, or 88.33 points, to 33,085.09. So far this year, it has declined 3.1%.
The finance ministry has called for a meeting of primary dealers in New Delhi on Wednesday to discuss its near-record bond sale program for the new fiscal year. The ministry wants to seek the views about how it can conduct its Rs6.06 trillion program smoothly, and talks may include what maturities would be better received, Bloomberg reported.
The 10-year bond yield was at 7.645% compared to its previous close of 7.618%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
So far this year, the rupee fell 2%, while foreign investors have bought $1.60 billion in equity and sold $310.80 million in debt market.
Asian currencies were trading lower. South Korean won was down 0.21%, Malaysian ringgit 0.17%, Taiwan dollar 0.08%, Thai baht 0.05% and Indonesian rupiah 0.05%. However, Singapore dollar, China offshore and Japanese yen were up 0.05% each.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 90.282, down 0.10% from its previous close of 90.371.