| Date: |
14-05-2015 |
| Subject: |
Rupee opens marginally higher at 63.98 per dollar |
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Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Thursday saw little change against the dollar, ahead of the announcement of the Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation data for April at 12pm.
The local unit opened at 63.98 per dollar. At 9.08am, the home currency was trading at 64.02, down 0.01% from its previous close of 64.01.
According to estimates of 33 Bloomberg economists, the WPI will be minus 2.3% in April compared with minus 2.33% in March.
On Tuesday, government data showed that factory output touched a five-month low in March to 2.1% from 4.9% a month ago and inflation eased to a four-month low in April to 4.87% from 5.25% a month ago, providing the right context for a possible rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its monetary policy review on 2 June.
Investors hope the RBI will go for a rate cut in the face of sluggish growth and falling inflation.
The Sensex rose 0.14% or 37.31 points to 27,288.41 points. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have sold $2.54 billion in equity markets in the last 16 out of 18 sessions, except on 21 April and 11 May, when they bought $2.6 billion and $49.07 million, respectively. In May so far, FIIs have sold $1.29 billion in debt and $761.38 million in equity.
The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 7.962% compared with Tuesday’s close of 7.956%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has lost 1.51%, while FIIs have bought $6.45 billion from local equity and $6.16 billion from bond markets.
Most of the Asian currencies were trading higher. South Korean won was up 0.47%, Taiwan dollar was up 0.41%, Malaysian ringgit was up 0.34%, Indonesian rupiah was up 0.28%, Philippines peso was up 0.24% and Thai baht was up 0.2%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 93.647, up 0.04% from its previous close of 93.617.
Source : livemint.com
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