Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Friday weakened against the US dollar after local equity markets fell for the second session.
The home currency closed at 66.87 against US dollar, down 0.34% from its Thursday’s close of 66.65. The rupee opened at 66.63 a dollar and touched a low of 66.92.
Yields on 10-year government bond closed at 7.728% from its previous close of 7.734%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Benchmark Sensex Index dropped 0.53%, or 187.76 points, to close at 34,915.38 points. Year to date, it’s up 2.52%.
Since January, the rupee has weakened 4.48%, while foreign investors have bought $1.13 billion and sold $2.05 billion in equity and debt markets, respectively.
Asian currencies were trading higher. Japanese yen was up 0.211%, China renminbi down 0.107%, Taiwan dollar 0.157%, Singapore dollar and Philippines peso were down 0.1955% and 0.066% respectively. South Korean won was up 0.539%, Indonesian rupiah lost 0.043%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 92.558, up 0.16% from its previous close of 92.414.