Mumbai: The Indian rupee weakened on Wednesday as the dollar index tocuhed a 12-year high.
The local unit opened at 62.83 per dollar. At 9.08 am, the home currency was trading at 61.79, down 0.03% from previous close of 62.78. The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 98.723, up 0.11% from the previous close of 98.618. The S&P BSE Sensex index gained 0.05%, or 15.55 points, to 28,725.42 points in pre-opening trade. Major Asian currencies were trading lower. The Indonesian rupiah was down 0.66%, South Korean won down 0.52%, Taiwanese dollar 0.31%, Malaysian ringgit 0.29%, Philippines peso 0.13% and Hong Kong dollar 0.01%. The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 7.747% compared with its Tuesday’s close of 7.749%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions. Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has gained 0.42%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $11.29 billion during the period from local equity and bond markets.