Mumbai: The Indian rupee, which fell 0.4% last week, gained on Monday, tracking the local equity market. The domestic currency closed at 62.0638 per dollar, up 0.11%, from the previous close of 62.13. Earlier, the unit had opened at 62.11 per dollar and touched a high of 61.9487 per dollar. India’s benchmark equity index, S&P BSE Sensex, closed at 20,811.44 points, up 0.53%, from previous close. The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond ended at 8.885% as compared with its previous close of 8.792%. Yields surged after central bank governor Raghuram Rajan warned that inflation remained the biggest threat to economic growth. Rajan, who has raised borrowing costs three times since taking office in September, said in an interview in Sydney that reining in price gains is the Reserve Bank of India’s number one challenge and action will be data dependent, Bloomberg reported. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions. The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 80.189, down 0.05% from the previous close of 80.237.

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