
Rupee slips; weaker dollar of little help amid importer hedging demand
MUMBAI, March 7 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee weakened slightly on Friday even as the dollar lingered near a four-month low against its major peers with traders saying that importers' hedging requirements and foreign banks' dollar purchases weighed on the local unit.
The rupee was at 87.1475 against the U.S. dollar, down slightly from its close at 87.1150 in the previous session.
Asian currencies were mostly rangebound while the dollar index dipped below 104, hovering close to its weakest level since November.
Concerns about a slowdown in the U.S. economy alongside uncertainty about the growth-inflation impact of trade tariffs have weighed on the U.S. dollar over recent sessions, driving the dollar index down by about 3% this month.
While the rupee has gained slightly on the back of a weaker dollar, it remains a laggard amongst Asian peers due to persistent portfolio outflows from Indian equities and heightened domestic hedging.
Foreign investors have net sold more than $15 billion of local stocks so far in 2025.
An uptick in rupee volatility has also spurred local companies to ramp their short and long tenor hedges, bankers said.
The focus on Friday will be on the U.S. non-farm payrolls report due later in the day which will influence market expectations of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, and the dollar's trajectory by extension.
Economists polled by Reuters have forecast that the world's largest economy added 160,000 jobs in February while the unemployment rate was unchanged month-on-month at 4%.
Interbank traders on the dollar-rupee pair are positioned for a slight rebound in the U.S. dollar post the data, a trader at a state-run bank said.

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Reuters
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TRADING DAY Good vibrations turn sour
ORLANDO, Florida, June 11 (Reuters) - TRADING DAY Making sense of the forces driving global markets By Jamie McGeever, Markets Columnist I'm excited to announce that I'm now part of Reuters Open Interest (ROI), an essential new source for data-driven, expert commentary on market and economic trends. You can find ROI on the Reuters website, and you can follow us on LinkedIn and X. The US and China have reached a trade deal, or at least agreed on the framework of a deal, which together with surprisingly soft U.S. inflation data, gave markets a lift on Wednesday. But Wall Street's gains were mild, and they were later wiped out by rising tensions in the Middle East. In my column today I look at the 'equity risk premium' and other metrics that suggest relative U.S. equity and bond valuations are getting very stretched. More on that below, but first, a roundup of the main market moves. If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today. Today's Key Market Moves Good vibrations turn sour It's a "done" deal, according to U.S. President Donald Trump, although the he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping still have to finalize the wording of the trade agreement between the two superpowers and sign off on it. The main points of the deal appear to be: China will remove export restrictions on rare earth minerals and other key industrial components; U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods will total 55%; Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods will total 10%. Trump could not have been more enthusiastic in his praise for the agreement on Wednesday, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said 'deal after deal' with other countries will follow in the weeks ahead. Yet, judging by the relatively muted market reaction, investors are less enthused. 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