The Indian rupee weakened against the U.S. dollar on Thursday amid a further rise in US treasury yields, prompting the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to intervene to prevent a larger decline.
The rupee was at 83.10 by 10:46 a.m. IST, compared to Monday's close of 82.9500. Domestic forex markets were closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The rupee was under pressure in the offshore market on Tuesday and Wednesday, but managed to recover on likely RBI intervention. read more
On Thursday morning too, RBI intervened, likely selling dollars via public sector banks to ensure that the rupee did not fall to a record low.
There was sizeable intervention from RBI and the rupee is expected to be in a narrow range for the rest of the day, a foreign exchange trader at a bank said.
"While the RBI has enough FX reserves to defend a particular level for the rupee, we remain cautious in assuming that the central bank would want to put a hard stop for the pair at 83 level given global pressures," HDFC Bank's treasury research desk said in a note
India's foreign exchange reserves stood at $601.45 billion as of August 4, down from $603.87 billion in the week preceding that.
Yields on the 10-year U.S. treasury notes rose to 4.2820%, marking the highest level since October 2022.
Asian currencies also weakened against the dollar, with the Malaysian ringgit and Korean won leading losses. The offshore Chinese yuan dropped to an over 9-month low.
Major state-run banks in China were seen selling dollars in both offshore and onshore spot markets in a bid to slow down weakness in the yuan. A widening yield differential with the U.S. and economic growth concerns are hurting demand for the currency.
