Rupee erases all gains, trades flat at 60.84 per dollar

Mumbai: The Indian rupee erased all its gains and remained barely changed from its previous close, tracking the weakness in other Asian currencies on Friday. At 2.19pm, the home currency was trading at 60.84, up 0.01% from Thursday’s close of 60.85, while India’s equity benchmark Sensex index was trading at 27,123.27 points on BSE, up 0.04%. The local unit had opened at 60.77 per dollar. Most Asian currencies were trading lower. The Japanese yen was trading down 0.32%, Philippines Peso 0.2%, Malaysian ringgit 0.20%, South Korean won down 0.15%, Singapore dollar was down 0.02% on Friday. On Thursday, the US Federal Reserve retained its guidance that short-term interest rates will remain near zero for a “considerable time” after the bond-buying programme is expected to end next month. The Fed tapered monthly bond buying by $10 billion for the seventh time, staying on course to end the programme in October. The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 8.45%, compared with its Thursday’s close of 8.453%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions. Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has gained 1.59%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $14.09 billion from local equity markets. The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 84.516, up 0.23% from the previous close of 84.323.