Rupee trades lower at 66.49 against US dollar

Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Tuesday weakened marginally against the US dollar as traders turned cautious ahead of the macroeconomic data due after 5.30pm on Tuesday.

At 2pm, the home currency was trading at 66.49, down 0.08% from its previous close of 66.43. The rupee opened at 66.40 and touched a high and a low of 66.39 and 66.56 respectively.

The government will issue the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation data. According to Bloomberg estimates, IIP will be at 1% in February as against -1.5% in January. The CPI will be at 5% in March as compared to 5.18% in February.

The markets will remain closed on Thursday on account of Ambedkar Jayanti and on Friday on account of Ram Navmi.

India’s benchmark Sensex rose 0.03% or 7.08 points to 25,029.24. So far this year, Sensex fell 4.2%.

Bond yield fell after private weather forecaster Skymet said that the India’s monsoon rainfall is expected to be “above average”. The India Meteorological Department (IMD), the official weather forecasting agency, is expected to announce its forecast on Tuesday.

India’s 10-year bond yield was trading at 7.408% as compared with its Monday’s close of 7.418%.

So far this year, the rupee weakened 0.52%, foreign institutional investors have bought $1.05 billion from local equity and sold $615.7 million in debt markets.

Asian currencies were trading higher. Malaysian ringgit was up 0.23%, Indonesian rupiah 0.13%, Taiwan dollar 0.11%, Philippines peso 0.09%, South Korean won 0.06%. However, Japanese yen was down 0.2%, Thai baht 0.06%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 93.715, down 0.26% from its previous close of 93.95.

Overnight, US President Barack Obama and Federal chair Janet Yellen discussed risks to the US economy and progress from Wall Street reform during a rare meeting in the Oval Office on Monday, Reuters reported.