Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Friday strengthened marginally against the US dollar in opening trade. This was the third sessions when the currency is trading higher.
The home currency opened at 67.85 a dollar. At 9.15am, the rupee was trading at 67.83 against US dollar, up 0.20% from its previous close of 67.99.
So far this year, the rupee has weakened 6.1%, while foreign investors have sold $1.15 billion and $5.64 billion in equity and debt markets respectively.
The 10-year bond yield stood at 7.78%, from its Thursday’s close of 7.77%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Benchmark Sensex Index rose 0.12% or 41.79 points to 35,390.60. Since January, it has gained 4.6%.
Asian currencies were trading mixed. South Korean won was up 0.33%, Philippines peso 0.13%, Malaysian ringgit 0.06%, Japanese yen 0.03%. However, China renminbi was down 0.17%, China offshore 0.14%, Thai baht 0.09%, Indonesian rupiah 0.04%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 94.781, down 0.09% from its previous close of 94.862.