Rupee hits 2-week high of 66.14 against US dollar

Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Wednesday hit a two-week high against the US dollar, after India’s trade deficit narrowed to a five-year low.

At 2.10pm, the home currency was up 0.61% at 66.15, the maximum gain since 17 March, from its previous close of 66.55. The rupee opened at 66.28 a dollar and touched a high of 66.14, a level last seen on 5 April.

India’s trade deficit narrowed to over a five-year low of $5.07 billion in March, with imports declining sharply by 21.6% year-on-year as against a decline of 5.5% in exports. Imports of oil and gold — the two highest constituents of India’s import bill — registered a sharp decline in March, falling by 35.30% and 80.5% respectively.

The equity benchmark Sensex was barely changed, rising 0.02% or 5.98 points to 25,822.34 points. In the last five trading sessions, the Sensex has gained 5.14% or 1268 points. So far this year, Sensex is down 0.67%.

India’s 10-year bond yield was trading at 7.433%, as compared with its Monday’s close of 7.417%.

So far this year, the rupee gained 0.01%, while foreign institutional investors bought $1.25 billion from local equity market and sold $489.20 million in debt markets.

Asian currencies were trading lower. Thai baht was down 0.22%, Singapore dollar 0.21%, China renminbi 0.16%, Taiwan dollar 0.14%, China offshore 0.13%, Philippines peso 0.07%. However, Malaysian ringgit was up 0.6%, Japanese yen 0.25%, South Korean won 0.09%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 94.116, up 0.15% from its previous close of 93.976.