Rupee weakens slightly, broad dollar softness cushions pressure
The rupee closed at 86.2925 against the U.S. dollar, down about 0.2% on the day, after touching a near one-month low of 86.35 earlier in the session.
Asian currencies were flat-to-slightly higher, while the dollar index declined by nearly 0.2% to 98.2.
The Indian rupee and the Indonesian rupiah are among the few regional currencies nursing losses on the year so far, even as their peers, such as the Taiwan dollar and the Korean won, have climbed over 11% and 6%, respectively.
Muted portfolio flows, India's external investment deficit and likely FX reserve accumulation by the Reserve Bank of India are among the reasons cited by analysts for rupee's lacklustre performance this year.
On the day, price action appeared to indicate modest outflows but dollar-buying pressure eased in the latter half of the session, helping the rupee trim its losses, a trader at a private bank said.
India's benchmark equity indexes, the BSE Sensex (.BSESN), opens new tab and Nifty 50 (.NSEI), opens new tab, closed higher by about 0.5% each on the day, while the benchmark 10-year bond yield was last quoted slightly lower at 6.2986%.
In the near term, focus will be on developments on two fronts: how U.S. economic data impact expectations of rate cuts and news surrounding U.S.-India trade negotiations ahead of the August 1 deadline for higher U.S. tariffs to take effect.
"We maintain our view that slower growth, profit margin compression and export price reduction will contain the impact of tariffs, and that a slower economy will justify the Fed resuming rate cuts in September," ANZ said in a Monday note.
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