Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Wednesday weakened to a fresh 15-month low against the US dollar, tracking losses in Asian currencies amid continued outflows from local assets and elevated crude oil prices.
At 9.15am, the home currency was trading at 67.38 against US dollar, down 0.45% from its previous close of 67.08. The currency opened at 66.34 and touched a low of 67.39—a level last seen on 8 February 2017. Year to date, it lost over 5%.
Since start of April, foreign investors in both equity and debt sold a combined $3.85 billion. So far this year, they have bought $790.60 million and sold $2.26 billion in equity and debt markets, respectively.
Oil pries rose to the highest level since late 2014 after US President Donald Trump said the US will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, a move that was seen as raising the chances of another Mideast war and testing Washington’s relations with Europe.
The 10-year bond yield stood at 7.648%, from its previous close of 7.581%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Asian currencies were trading lower. South Korean won was down 0.5%, Thai Baht 0.41%, Taiwan dollar 0.4%, Japanese yen 0.34%, Indonesian rupiah 0.23%, Philippines peso 0.19%, Singapore dollar 0.13%, Malaysian ringgit 0.13%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 93.187, up 0.07% from its previous close of 93.12.