Rupee Weakens Amid US-China Trade Deal Concerns

On Wednesday, rupee was trading weaker against the US dollar as it tracked losses in its Asian peers amid doubts over a trade truce between the US and China.

The Indian rupee opened at 71.80 a dollar as against Tuesday's close of 71.67.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said "I have no deadline," as he answered reporters in London when asked if he wanted an agreement by year end.

Stocks in the European and US equity markets fell as Trump's comments indicated no urgency to reach a deal by 15 December, a deadline that was earlier indicated by US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Monday.

Trump signalled that he would be willing to wait for another year before striking a trade agreement with China, re-igniting doubts on the likelihood of a phase-one deal by the end of 2019.

Currency traders now have eyes on the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy statement, due on Thursday. High expectations are on a rate cut as growth concerns loom after a 6-year low GDP data reported last week for Q2.
In 2019, this far, the rupee has fallen by 2.64 percent.

Other Asian currencies were also trading weaker. South Korean won was down 0.59 percent, Malaysian ringgit 0.16 percent, Thai Baht 0.12 percent, China Renminbi, Indonesian rupiah, and Philippines peso were down 0.05 percent each while Japanese yen was up 0.1 percent.

Meanwhile, BSE's Sensex opened 0.3 percent lower at 40,562 and the NSE's Nifty 50 was down by 0.29 percent to 11,958.