Mumbai: The Indian rupee closed at a fresh 30-month low against the US dollar on Monday as market mood remained jittery ahead of the Union budget, scheduled on 29 February.

The home currency closed at 68.61—a level last seen on 28 August 2013, down 0.20% from its previous close of 68.47. The local currency opened at 68.63 a dollar and touched a low of 68.69, a level last seen on 28 August 2013.

Since the beginning of this year, the rupee has lost 3.57%, while foreign institutional investors have sold $2.47 billion from local equity and bought $165.60 million in bond markets.

The budget session will begin from Tuesday and could keep the rupee volatile, said a foreign currency trader.

The government will introduce the railway budget on Thursday and Union budget on 29 February.

Traders will look for direction of government policy through these two announcements. Also, traders will keep an eye on the annual economic outlook survey on Friday.

During the session, modest gains in domestic equity market and Asian currencies lent some support to the rupee.

India’s benchmark Sensex index rose 0.34%, or 79.64 points, to close at 23,788.79. So far this year, the Sensex has fallen 9%.

Most Asian currencies closed higher. Indonesian rupiah was up 0.52%, Malaysian ringgit 0.25%, Singapore dollar 0.2%, Hong Kong dollar 0.12%, Taiwan dollar 0.08%. However, Japanese yen was down 0.59%, while the Thai baht declined 0.07%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 97.269, up 0.70% from its previous close of 96.6.

Meanwhile, the yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond closed at 7.773% against Thursday’s close of 7.739%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

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