rupee rate today: Rupee settles marginally higher at 83.53 against US dollar; 10-year G-Sec ends flat

Mumbai: The rupee strengthened marginally versus the US dollar on Friday as lower-than-expected US inflation data bolstered the expectation of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve. The rupee closed at 83.53/$1 on Friday, versus 83.56/$1 on Thursday, Reuters data showed.

The dollar index strengthened moderately to 104.39 on Friday, after declining to a one month low of 104.07 on Thursday, according to Reuters. US inflation fell faster than forecast to 3% in June.

Expectations of a September rate cut by the US Federal Reserve rose to 90% after the US inflation data was released, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.

Traders are expecting a broad range of 83.30 to 83.60 versus the US dollar in the rupee movement. Bond and rupee traders kept off large bets ahead of the Indian inflation data released after market hours on friday.

Yields on the 10-year benchmark government securities remained stable. The yields closed at 6.98% today unchanged from the previous day, according to CCIL.

“Yes the 10-year G-Sec ended flat but did give up its gains during the day due to hardening of US yields and due to RBIs comment yesterday”, said a bond trader from a public sector bank.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday said with retail inflation still above the 4% target, any talks about cut in interest rates would be too premature.