By Jaspreet Kalra
MUMBAI (Reuters) – The Indian rupee weakened on Tuesday as outflows related to the rebalancing of some global equity indexes, coupled with dollar demand from importers, pressured the currency even as most of its Asian peers gained.
The rupee closed at 83.67 against the U.S. dollar, down 0.1% from its close at 83.5525 in the previous session.
Outflows related to a rejig of the FTSE equity indexes, dollar bids from a large Indian conglomerate and routine importer dollar demand pressured the currency on Tuesday, traders said.
The pressure snapped the currency’s six-day winning streak which had lifted the currency by about 0.5%. On Monday, the rupee had touched an intraday high of 83.4350, its best level in nearly three months.
The dollar index was lower by 0.1% at 100.7 on the day while the offshore Chinese yuan rose about 0.4% to 7.03 after the country’s central bank unveiled its biggest stimulus since the pandemic.
Gains in the yuan likely reflect “both Chinese exporters belatedly hedging dollar receivables, but also a re-rating of the China investment thesis and investors being forced to pare back underweight positions in China,” ING Bank said in a note.
Most Asian currencies were lifted by the yuan’s rally and were last quoted up between 0.1% to 1.2%.
Investors now await remarks from Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman later in the day.
Bowman was only dissenter to the Fed’s decision to cut rates by 50 bps last week and her remarks may offer cues on the size of the Fed’s upcoming rate cut in November.
Odds of the Fed delivering a 50 or 25 bp rate cut are currently split nearly evenly down the middle, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra)
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