Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Monday weakened against the US dollar, tracking losses in Asian currencies as crude oil prices gained. At 9.13am, the rupee was trading at 73.91 a dollar, down 0.41% from its Friday’s close of 73.57. The currency opened at 73.80 a dollar. Bond yield was trading flat after Friday’s retail inflation which grew slower than estimated. The 10-year gilt yield stood at 7.961% from its previous close of 7.983%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Oil prices rose 1.3% as top OPEC producer Saudi Arabia threatened to retaliate against any punitive measures over the disappearance of journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi.
Consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation rose from 3.69% in August to 3.77% in September while the index of industrial production (IIP) fell from 6.5% in July to 4.3% in August, data released by the Central Statistics Office on Friday showed.
Benchmark Sensex rose 0.69% or 238.39 points to 34,971.97 points. Year to date, it has risen 2%.
So far this year, the rupee has declined 13.6%, while foreign investors have sold $4.21 billion and $8.19 billion in the equity and debt markets, respectively.
Asian currencies were trading lower. Indonesian rupiah was down 0.33%, Taiwan dollar 0.17%, South Korean won 0.17%, Philippines peso 0.14%, Malaysian ringgit 0.11%, Thai Baht 0.05%, Hong Kong dollar 0.04%. However, Japanese yen was up 0.12%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 95.343, up 0.12% from its previous close of 95.221.