Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Monday was trading little changed against the US dollar as traders were cautious and avoided taking long positions after Business Standard report said that the Viral Acharya deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) resigned six months before his term ends citing “unavoidable personal reasons".

At 9.15 am, the rupee traded at 69.57 a dollar, down 0.01% from its previous close of 69.58. The Indian currency had opened at 69.61 a dollar.

The 10-year bond yield was at 6.846%, compared with Friday's close of 6.856%.

"At the margin, the composition of the MPC will likely become incrementally more dovish, in our view, as Dr. Acharya stood on the more hawkish side of the policy spectrum. Dr. Patra’s views are well known, while Sanjeev Sanyal has argued for lowering the cost of capital in the past. Other candidates could be discussed in coming days.", Nomura Research report said.

For now, the focus shifts to Dr. Acharya’s successor, the submission of Dr. Bimal Jalan committee report on the RBI’s economic capital framework and the union budget (5 July), Nomura report added.

The benchmark Sensex index was down 0.23% at 39,104.53 points. Year to date, the index has risen 8.67%.

So far this year, the rupee has fallen 0.2% against the US greenback. During the period, foreign investors bought $11.17 billion in Indian equities and $1.40 billion in the debt market.

Asian currencies were trading higher. South Korean won was up 0.56%, Indonesian rupiah 0.20%, Thai Baht 0.15%, Taiwan dollar 0.12%, Singapore dollar 0.1%, Malaysian ringgit 0.08%. However, China Offshore was down 0.11%, China renminbi 0.11%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against a basket of major currencies, was at 96.107, down 0.12% from its previous close of 96.22.

Dr. Acharya, who was in charge of monetary policy, will return to New York University as an economics professor in August instead of February 2020, according to the newspaper report.

Published On : 24-06-2019

Source : Live Mint