The Indian rupee opened flat at 94.66 against the US dollar on Wednesday, compared to Tuesday's close of 94.66.
According to Finrex, the rupee posted its first quarterly gain in five quarters, appreciating roughly 0.2% during the April-June quarter. The near term direction of the INR will likely depend on US employment data and expectations of the FED Reserve.
As the dollar index falls slightly to 101.30 we expect the rupee to open at 94.66 levels (almost flat) and stay in the range of 94.20 to 95.00 for the day, it said.
Most Asian currencies are down today and therefore we expect the rupee also to remain weak unless there are some flows in the currency pair. Yesterday exporters got an opportunity to sell at 94.76 levels and today also if they get around 94.80 should keep selling while importers as usual to keep buying the dips, Finrex added further.
Asian currencies traded mostly lower against the US dollar. The South Korean Won was the biggest underperformer, falling 0.531%, followed by the Philippine Peso, which declined by 0.393%, while the Indonesian Rupiah and Thai Baht lost 0.313% and 0.300%, respectively. The Japanese Yen slipped 0.074%, and the Singapore Dollar shed 0.100% against the US dollar.
Among the gainers, the Chinese Renminbi rose 0.124%, the Malaysian Ringgit gained 0.118%, and the Taiwan Dollar edged up 0.009%.
Meanwhile, the dollar got a boost from a sharp rise in Treasury yields and pushed the yen to a 40-year trough on Wednesday, as traders braced for a crucial U.S. jobs report and ramped up bets on an imminent Federal Reserve rate hike.
The dollar rose to a fresh top of 162.77 yen in the early Asian session, well above levels that prompted Japanese authorities to intervene a few months ago to shore up the ailing currency.