Rupee opens higher at 63.36 per dollar

Mumbai: The Indian rupee strengthened for the second consecutive session against the dollar on Tuesday ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting.

The local unit opened at 63.36 per dollar. At 9.11am, the rupee was trading at 63.40, up 0.13% from its previous close of 63.49.

The S&P BSE Sensex index rose 0.14% to 27,215.61 points. Since 14 April, the local equity markets have fallen by 1,865 points on the expectation of weak monsoon, muted earnings and threat of minimum alternate tax on foreign funds.

“Analysts expected no change in policy stance from the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on 28-29 April, as recent domestic data have been weaker than forecast and a strong dollar has crimped export activities,” Reuters reported.

Major Asian currencies were trading higher against the dollar. The Malaysian ringgit was up 0.35%, China rinminbi was up 0.23%, South Korean won was up 0.23%, Taiwan dollar was up 0.21%, China Offshore spot was up 0.12% and Philippines peso was up 0.1%. However, Thai baht was down 0.21%, Singapore dollar was down 0.1% and Indonesian rupiah and Japanese yen were down 0.05% each.

The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 7.78% compared with its Monday’s close of 7.782%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

Since the start of 2015, the rupee has fallen 0.54%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $8.30 billion from local equity and $6.71 billion from bond markets.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 96.791, up 0.03% from the previous close of 96.765.