Rupee weakens against US dollar

Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Friday weakened against the US dollar after local equity markets fell for the second session.

At 2pm, the home currency was trading at 66.80 against US dollar, down 0.24% from its Thursday’s close of 66.65. The rupee opened at 66.63 a dollar and touched a low of 66.81.

Yields on 10-year government bond stood at 7.728% from its previous close of 7.734%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

Benchmark Sensex Index dropped 0.51%, or 178.17 points, to 34,924.97 points. Year to date, it’s up 2.5%.

Since January, the rupee has weakened 4.4%, while foreign investors have bought $1.13 billion and sold $2.05 billion in equity and debt markets, respectively.

Asian currencies were trading higher. Japanese yen was up 0.18%, China renminbi 0.1%, Taiwan dollar 0.08%, Singapore dollar and Philippines peso were up 0.05% each. However, South Korean won was down 0.1%, Indonesian rupiah 0.05%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 92.392, down 0.02% from its previous close of 92.414.