MUMBAI: The rupee closed at 86.95 against the US dollar on Tuesday, slipping 8 paise as demand for dollars linked to maturing non-deliverable forward (NDF) contracts and weakness among regional peers weighed on the currency. The benchmark 10-year bond was quoted at Rs.100.7, with the yield at 6.7%, as investors awaited a debt purchase scheduled for later this week.
Last week, the rupee breached the 87 mark for the first time before staging a sharp recovery, following aggressive intervention by the RBI, which is believed to have sold several billion dollars to support the currency. This intervention is seemed to have limited further losses.
The NDF is a cash-settled, currency contract where parties agree to exchange the difference between a contracted exchange rate and the market rate on a specified future date, without the physical delivery of the currency.
In addition to pressures from maturing NDF positions, outflows from local stocks also affected the rupee. Foreign investors have pulled out around $12 billion from Indian equities in 2025, adding to the currency’s woes.
Regional weakness compounded rupee’s troubles as the offshore Chinese yuan slipped 0.2% to 7.3, and the dollar index edged close to the 107 mark. US bond yields rose, strengthening the dollar, which continued its rebound after President Trump postponed the implementation of reciprocal trade tariffs.