Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Wednesday weakened marginally against US dollar tracking losses in Asian currencies ahead of speeches from Federal Reserve officials.

The home currency opened at 68.65 a dollar. At 9:10 am, it was at 68.63 a dollar, down 0.11% from its previous close of 68.55.

Traders are looking to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s two-day testimony to Congress after a surprisingly strong jobs report last week tempered bets for US interest-rate cuts.

Back home, the 10-year bond yield was at 6.592% compared with Tuesday's close of 6.588%.

In pre-trade, the benchmark Sensex Index was up 0.4% at 38885.99 points. So far this year, the index has risen 7.38%.

So far this year, the rupee has risen 1.6% against the greenback. During the period, foreign investors bought $10.92 billion in Indian equities and $2.11 billion in the debt market.

Asian currencies were trading lower. South Korean won was down 0.1%, Philippines peso 0.09%, Hong Kong dollar 0.08%, Indonesian rupiah 0.06%, Thai Baht 0.06%, Japanese yen 0.05%. However, Taiwan dollar was up 0.11%, China Offshore 0.07%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against a basket of major currencies, was at 97.499, up 0.01% from its previous close of 97.489.

Published On : 10-07-2019

Source : Live Mint