Rupee hits 3-month low agains dollar on Fed tapering
The local unit opened at 60.25 per dollar and touched a low of 60.58 in intra-day trade, its lowest level since 28 April
Mumbai: The rupee ended lower against the dollar on Thursday, tracking the weakness in other Asian currencies after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to take another $10 billion cut on its monthly asset purchases.
The home currency ended at 60.56, down 0.83% from its previous close of 60.06. India’s benchmark index, Sensex ended at 25,894.97 points on BSE, down 0.74%. The local unit opened at 60.25 per dollar and touched a low of 60.58 in intra-day trade, its lowest level since 28 April.
All the Asian currencies ended lower. The Thai baht was down 0.46%, Malaysian ringgit 0.41%, South Korean won 0.33%, Singapore dollar 0.24%, Philippines peso 0.13% and Taiwan dollar 0.13%.
The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond ended at 8.498%, compared with its previous close of 8.513%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has gained 2.05%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $12.11 billion from local equity markets.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 81.501, up 0.08% from the previous close of 81.432.
India’s fiscal deficit in the first three months of 2014-15 touched 56.1% of the full-year target, government data showed on Thursday. Meanwhile, growth in eight core sector industries rose by 7.3% in June compared with 2.3% in May.
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