Rupee closes marginally higher against US dollar

Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Friday closed stronger against the US dollar as foreign investors continued to buy in local equities and debt markets.

The home currency closed at 65.42, up 0.19% from its previous close of 65.53. The rupee opened at 65.49 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 65.38 and 65.53 respectively. Year to date, the rupee has gained 4%.

So far this year, foreign institutional investors have bought $4.60 billion and $3.03 million from local equity and debt markets, respectively.

The benchmark Sensex index rose 0.30% or 89.24 points to closed at 29,421.40. So far this year, it has risen 10.5%.

India’s current account deficit (CAD) jumped to a four-quarter high of 1.4% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the December quarter from 0.6% of the GDP in the September quarter as trade deficit widened. In the same quarter (October-December) a year ago, India posted a CAD of $7.1 billion, or 1.4% of the GDP.

The 10-year bond yield closed at 6.831% compared to its Thursday’s close of 6.829%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

Asian currencies were trading lower. Japanese yen was down 0.31%, Thai baht 0.23%, Singapore dollar 0.14%, China offshore 0.13% and China renminbi 0.09%. However, Philippines peso was up 0.13%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 99.955—up 0.19% from its Monday’s close of 99.76