Mumbai: The rupee weakened marginally against the US dollar ahead of the key gross domestic product (GDP) and fiscal deficit data due after 5.30pm on Thursday.

The rupee opened at 64 a dollar. At 9.15am, the rupee was trading at 64.05 a dollar, down 0.08% from its Wednesday’s close of 63.99.

Traders are cautious ahead of the GDP data for June quarter. According to Bloomberg poll, GDP will be at 6.5% for the second quarter against 6.1% a quarter ago.

The government will also issue fiscal deficit data for April-July after 5.30pm. Fiscal deficit for April-June stood at Rs4.42 trillion or 80.8% of budget estimates for 2017-18 as against 61.1% of budget in the same period last year.

The benchmark Sensex index rose 0.15% or 47 points to 31,693.46. So far this year, it has risen over 19%.

The 10-year bond yield was at 6.543% compared to its previous close of 6.537%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

So far this year, the rupee has gained 6.3%, while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought $7.04 billion and $19.60 billion in equity and debt markets, respectively.

Asian currencies were trading lower. Japanese yen was down 0.24%, South Korean won 0.11%, Malaysian ringgit 0.1%, Taiwan dollar 0.06% and China renminbi 0.05%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 92.986, up 0.12% from its previous close of 92.884.

The dollar gained on the back of robust US economic data, posting a second consecutive increase for just the first time in two weeks. US added 237,000 jobs in August, beating estimates of 185,000; GDP grew by 3% in Q2 versus estimates of 2.7% growth, Bloomberg reported.

Source:livemint.com