Mumbai: The rupee on Tuesday was trading marginally lower against the US dollar, tracking losses in the global markets after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan.

The rupee opened at 63.94 a dollar. At 9.15am, the rupee was trading at 63.94 a dollar, down 0.05% from its Monday’s close of 63.91.

The missile landed about 1,200 kilometres off Hokkaido in the Pacific Ocean, Bloomberg reported, quoting chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga, adding there were no reports of damage.

Traders are also cautious ahead of the gross domestic product data for June quarter on 31 August. According to a Bloomberg poll, GDP will be at 6.5% for the second quarter against 6.1% a quarter ago.

The benchmark Sensex index fell 0.05% or 15.68 points to 31,766.50. So far this year, it has risen over 19.1%.

Bond yield opened three-month higher on concerns of larger debt supply coming into the markets this week. The Reserve Bank of India will sell Rs100 billion of bonds through open market operations due later on Tuesday. It will also sell Rs160 billion of bills on Wednesday and Rs180 billion of bonds sales on Friday.

The 10-year bond yield was at 6.572%, a level last seen on 6 June, compared to its previous close of 6.568%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

So far this year, the rupee has gained 6.27%, while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought $7.03 billion and $19.58 billion in equity and debt markets, respectively.

Asian currencies were trading mixed. South Korean won was down 0.53%, Philippines peso 0.23%, Taiwan dollar 0.14% and Singapore dollar fell 0.11%. However, Japanese yen was up 0.44%, China offshore 0.14% and China renminbi 0.1%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 92.236, up 0.03% from its previous close of 92.207.

Source:livemint.com