Mumbai: Rupee fell for a second day today, approaching a record low against the dollar as the currency was weighed down by strong dollar demand from oil companies and other importers to make month-end payments, two Mumbai-based traders said. Dollar-buying by foreign banks also hurting the rupee, one trader said.
At 2.13pm, the rupee-dollar exchange rate stood at 70.23, up 0.1% from previous close. The local currency hit an all-time low of 70.3950 on 16 August. The 10-year bond yield stood at 7.9%, from its Monday’s close of 7.89%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
The Sensex was up around 197.84 points and Nifty was trading around 11,736.05. Both the indices hit new highs in today’s trade.
So far this year, rupee has weakened 8.68% against the US dollar, while foreign investors have sold $311.72 million and $7.9 billion in equity and debt markets, respectively.
Asian currencies were trading mixed. South Korean Won gained 0.378, Malaysian Ringgit 0.081%, Taiwan dollar 0.065%, Philippine Peso 0.043% and Indonesian Rupiah 0.041%. However, Japanese yen lost 0.207%, China Offshore 0.150%, Singapore Dollar 0.059%, China renminbi 0.032% and Thai Baht 0.018%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 94.846, up 0.07% from its previous close of 94.779.