India’s Rupee inches lower on the foreign exchange market, on another slow day. On the currency market, at the end of Thursday (New York-based close) the value of Rupee depreciates by 4 paise and settled lower at 71.28 against the US dollar.
During the early Asia trading hours, the USD/INR exchange rate was seen quoted within a range of 71.30 — 71.19. The negative sentiment surrounding the Rupee is persisting since a week ago when the USD/INR exchange rate had a failed attempt to challenge the big psychological number 70.00.
On the other hand, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of major currencies was unmoved since the beginning of the week as the thinned liquidity took a toll on the greenback.
Elsewhere, foreign institutional investors (FIIS) sold shares in the local equity market worth Rs 504.13 crore; according to the National Stock Exchange of India data published at the end of Thursday’s trading session. At the same time Domestic institutional investors were net buyers, investing Rs 120.46 crore.
Year to date, abroad investors invested almost $14.35 billion in the domestic stock market and $3.35 billion in bonds.
Elsewhere, the Chinese Yuan was seen trading nearly at a five month high. The People’s Bank of China PBOC raised the midpoint rate for the yuan at 6.9801per US dollar and it’s now trading at 6.9991.
Looking forward over the economic calendar, currency traders will struggle to find market drivers for the session ahead as there are no risk events scheduled on the docket.
The domestic benchmark equity index NIFTY 50 traded lower on the back of foreign investment outflow and settled at 12,126, registering a -0.72% loss on Thursday. During early Asia trading hours NIFTY 50 gapped higher and was seen quoted around the 12,218 level. Year-to-date the Indian stock market has gained 12.32%, benefiting from net foreign investment inflow.
The Indian 10-year government bond yield was seen quoted at 6.52% compared with its previous close of 6.58%.
