MUMBAI: The Indian rupee is likely to open slightly lower to the dollar on Friday, tracking losses on most Asian currencies and shares on concerns over rising US yields.
The non-deliverable forward market indicates that the rupee will open at around 82.55-82.60 compared with 82.51 in the previous session.
The local currency is headed for its worst weekly performance since mid-December, weighed by the repricing of expectations of how high US interest rates are likely to rise in the current cycle.
The rupee fell over 1% on Monday on the back of the US jobs report.
Since then, the currency has received a bit of help from expectations that the Reserve Bank of India will likely prevent the rupee from falling below the 82.90-83.00 level.
“Continued FPI (foreign portfolio investors) equity outflows could contribute to pushing USD/INR higher and near to the 83 level, where we expect more USD sale by RBI,” DBS Group said in a note.
“Such flows (dollar sales by RBI) would put downward pressures on forward points and INR implied rates.”
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Foreign investors have taken out more than $4 billion from Indian equities year-to-date.
The 1-year USD/INR forward implied yield fell to 2.08% earlier this week.
The rupee’s Asian peers declined on Friday, adding to its weekly losses.
An overnight fall in US shares and a further rise in US yields dented demand for Asian currencies.
The 2-year US yield is now about 46 basis points from its recent lows.
The US jobs report has prompted investors to raise the Federal Reserve terminal rate expectations by about 35 basis points to 5.15%.
US yields rose despite a higher-than-expected increase in the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits.
The Korean won and the Thai baht were down 0.3% while Hong Kong led Asian shares lower.
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