Rupee ends slightly higher, forward premiums maintain downtrend
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The Indian rupee ended marginally higher on Thursday tracking rangebound price action across most of its Asian peers, while dollar-rupee forward premiums maintained their downtrend on an uptick in U.S. bond yields.
The rupee closed at 82.8175, slightly stronger from its close at 82.8625 in the previous session.
The dollar index inched higher to 102.84 while most Asian currencies were steady save for the Korean won which weakened by 0.2%.
The rupee weakened to an intra-day low of 82.8875 earlier in the session but dollar sales from exporters and a large foreign bank in the latter half helped it recover, a foreign exchange trader at a state-run bank said.
The dollar-rupee may soon see "a bearish leg" as the pair may encounter resistance near the 82.90-83.00 zone and consequently trend lower, Amit Pabari, managing director at FX advisory firm CR Forex said.
Meanwhile, dollar-rupee forward premiums slipped for the third consecutive day, with the 1-year implied yield down 1 basis points (bps) at 1.64%. The 1-year implied yield has fallen 8 bps over the last three trading sessions.
An uptick in U.S. bond yields pressured far forwards on Thursday alongside some tepidness in near forward premiums.
The 1-year U.S. Treasury yield was up 2 basis points in Asia hours at 5.05%. The 10-year Treasury yield also inched up to 4.20%.
U.S. bond yields have ticked higher after data signalled that inflation in the world's largest economy may prove to be stubborn, prompting investors to speculate that the Federal Reserve may further delay rate cuts.
Investors await the release of U.S. retail sales and initial jobless claims data due later in the day. Retail sales are expected to have risen 0.8% month-on-month in February after contracting 0.8% in the previous month, according to economists polled by Reuters.
