Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Friday strengthened against the US dollar for the fourth consecutive session, tracking gains in Asian currencies as the US currency weakened overnight because of slower growth in non-farm payrolls data. The rupee closed at 63.44, up 0.11% from previous close, but flat from its opening level of 63.43. In the intraday trade, rupee had touched 63.36—a level last seen on 6 May. The Sensex closed at 28,092.79, up 0.53%, or 146.99. US job growth slowed in June and Americans left the labour force in droves, tempering expectations for an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve in September, Reuters reported. The labour department said on Thursday that non-farm payrolls rose 223,000 last month after a downwardly revised 254,000 increase in May, with construction and government employment unchanged, and the mining sector purging more jobs, the report added. The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 7.804% compared with its Thursday’s close of 7.813%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions. Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has lost 0.6%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $6.2 billion from local equity and $6.42 billion from bond markets. The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 96.011, down 0.11% from its previous close of 96.113. Most of the Asian currencies closed higher. Philippines peso was up 0.26%, South Korean won 0.18%, Taiwan dollar 0.14%, Indonesian rupiah 0.13%, while Japanese yen added 0.12%. However, Malaysian ringgit was down 0.11%.

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