Rupee opens weak at 70.30 a dollar, bond yields spike

Indian rupee extended previous day’s selloff and opened lower against the greenback on Thursday, amid strengthening of the US dollar.

At 09:10 AM, the rupee was trading at 70.37 a dollar, down 19 paise from its Wednesday’s close of 70.18. The home currency opened at 70.30 and touched a high and a low of 70.29 and 70.39 a dollar, respectively.

The Indian rupee Wednesday crashed by 75 paise, its first loss in last four sessions, to close at 70.18 against the US dollar amid heavy selling in domestic equities.

Forex traders attributed the rupee fall to strong dollar against major global currencies overseas, fall in domestic equities and weak GST collections.

Falling crude oil prices, however, supported the rupee and capped the losses to some extent. International Brent crude futures were down 36 cents, or 0.7 percent, at $54.55 per barrel on Thursday.

Meanwhile, foreign funds pulled out Rs 621.06 crore from the capital markets on a net basis, while domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 226.18 crore Wednesday, provisional data showed.

In debt markets, the yields on the 10-year government bonds rose 0.5 percent to 7.40 percent from its previous close of 7.36 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.