Rupee trades marginally higher at 67.33 against US dollar

Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Tuesday erased all the morning losses and was trading little changed against the US dollar, as the mood turned cautious ahead of policy meetings of key global central banks scheduled later this week.

Traders are also cautious as the Constitution amendment bill to amend the goods and services tax (GST) is likely to be listed this week, after finance minister Arun Jaitley meets state finance ministers on Tuesday.

At 2pm, the home currency was trading at 67.33, up 0.04% from its previous close of 67.35. The local currency opened and touched a low of 67.43 a dollar, a level last seen on 8 July.

India’s benchmark Sensex index rose 0.03%, or 8.51 points, to 28,107.76. So far this year, it has gained 7.1%.

The US Federal Open Market Committee is due to start a two-day monetary policy meeting on 26 July, with the market expecting the US Federal Reserve to keep monetary policy steady. Traders will also be eyeing Bank of Japan’s two-day monetary policy meeting due to start on 28 July, with markets expecting additional fiscal and monetary stimulus to jump-start the country’s anemic growth.

So far this year, the rupee is down 1.7%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $4.02 billion in equity and sold $864.1 million in debt markets.

Asian currencies were trading higher. Japanese yen was up 1.6%, Singapore dollar 0.36%, Taiwan dollar 0.2%, South Korean won 0.15%, China offshore 0.1%, Malaysian ringgit 0.08%, while China renminbi and Thai baht rose 0.06%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 97.053, down 0.24% from its previous close of 97.286.

Meanwhile, India’s 10-year bond yield was trading at 7.25%, compared with Monday’s close of 7.248%.