Rupee closes 21 paise stronger against dollar at 60.47
In intra-day trade, the Indian currency touched a high of 60.38 per dollar, a level last seen on 31 July
Mumbai: The rupee was up against the US dollar, backed by positive sentiment in the local stock market and tracking gains made by emerging market currencies against the dollar overseas.
After opening at 60.52 per dollar, the Indian currency touched a high of 60.38 per dollar, a level last seen on 31 July. The rupee closed at 60.47 per dollar, up 0.33% from Thursday’s close of 60.68 per dollar.
India’s benchmark index, S&P BSE Sensex ended at 26,419.55 points on BSE, up 0.23%.
“There is no real trigger for the rupee to be strong today except the rise in other emerging currencies. All eyes are now on what US Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen says in her speech later today," said a dealer with a French bank.
Yellen will speak on the US labour market on Friday in what could reveal the central bank’s thoughts on economic recovery as US employment data will play a key role to decide on when the US central bank decides to hike interest rates.
Most of the Asian currencies ended higher. South Korean won rose 0.59%, Malaysian ringgit added 0.32%, Indonesian rupiah gained 0.17%, Singapore dollar advanced 0.16%, Japanese yen climbed 0.13%, Taiwan dollar added 0.1%, while Thai Baht climbed 0.1%.
Bloomberg on Friday quoted Standard and Poors’ associate director Agost Bernard as saying that the new Indian government’s commitment to maintain fiscal consolidation by cutting the fiscal deficit is a positive step towards improving the metrics of India’s sovereign rating.
“The fiscal policy stance has been a constraining factor for India’s sovereign ratings for some time. If authorities can deliver on their fiscal goals resulting in a lower debt and interest burden that would benefit India’s credit fundamentals," Bernard was quoted as saying.
However, details of how the government can achieve 7-8% growth as flagged in the budget are lacking, S&P said.
The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond ended at 8.515%, compared with its Thursday’s close of 8.51%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
In this week rupee gained 0.49%. Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has gained 2.20%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $12.64 billion during the period from local equity markets.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 82.19, up 0.05% from the previous close of 82.154.
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