Mumbai: The Indian rupee traded lower against the US dollar on Monday, tracking the losses in Asian currencies amid worsening US-China trade tensions.
At 2pm, the rupee was trading at 68.13 a dollar, down 0.43% from its Friday’s close of 67.83. It opened at 67.99 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 67.90 and 68.18 respectively.
US treasury department is planning to heighten scrutiny of Chinese investments in sensitive US industries under an emergency law. Investors should short INR/IDR as the recent rally in the pair is inconsistent with sustained outflows from India’s asset markets, while IDR has been undermined by concern about rising religious tensions, said RBC Capital Markets in a note.
The benchmark Sensex lost 0.31%, or 112.01 points, to 35577.59 points in afternoon session.
The 10-year bond yield was trading at 7.856% compared to its previous close of 7.820%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
So far this year, rupee has declined 6.24%, while foreign institutional investors have sold $1.01 billion in equity and $8.34 billion in debt.
Asian currencies were trading lower. South Korean won lost 0.844%, China offshore 0.544%, China renminbi 0.426%, Singapore dollar 0.250%, Taiwan dollar 0.290%, Malaysian rinnggit 0.299%, Indonesian rupiah 0.480%, Thai baht 0.042%, Philippines peso 0.236% and Hong Kong dollar 0.008. However, Japanese yen gained 0.420%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 94.462, down 0.06%, from its previous close of 94.520.
Bloomberg contributed to this story