Rupee opens higher at 61.45 per dollar - Livemint

Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has gained 0.45%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $14.20 billion during the period from local equity markets. Photo: Mint

Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Monday strengthen against the dollar, tracking gains in the Asian currencies market and equity markets.

Local equity markets were trading higher on expectation that Sunday’s Cabinet expansion by the Narendra Modi government will lead to faster decision-making and hence boost economic growth.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed 21 ministers, including four cabinet ministers, three minister of state (independent charge) and 14 ministers of state. While former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar was made defence minister, Suresh Prabhu has been given the railway ministry, which is keenly watched by Modi because of his interest in building rail infrastructure in the country and also to promote his pet project of starting a bullet train in the country. Surprisingly, finance minister Arun Jaitley has been given the charge of information and broadcasting ministry, which was previously held by Prakash Javadekar .

The local unit opened at 61.45 per dollar. At 9.15am, the home currency was trading at 61.46, up 0.30% from previous close of 61.64, while India’s equity benchmark Sensex index was trading at 27,919.71 points on BSE, up 0.18%.

Most of the Asian currencies were trading higher. South Korean won was up 0.73%, Malaysian ringgit rose 0.57%, Philippines peso 0.31%, Japanese yen 0.3%, Indonesian rupiah 0.3%, Taiwan dollar 0.24%, China offshore 0.19%, Thai baht 0.13%.

The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 8.187%, compared with its Friday’s close of 8.21%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions. Bond yield touched a low of 8.181 last level seen on 19 September 2013.

The government will issue Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation and Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation data for October on 12 September and 14 September. The Bloomberg poll says that CPI will be 6.46% and WPI will be 2.38% for October. The government will also issue index of industrial production (IIP) data on 12 September. The Bloomberg poll expects that it will be 0.4% for the month of September.

Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has gained 0.45%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $14.20 billion during the period from local equity markets.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 87.369, down 0.31% from the previous close of 87.642.