Indian rupee opened 27 paise lower on Thursday, after gaining for three straight sessions, as dollar held steady in Asian trade and was off its overnight lows.

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At 09:10 AM, the rupee was trading at 70.56 a dollar, down 17 paise from its Wednesday’s close of 70.39. The home currency opened at 70.66 and touched a high and a low of 70.53 and 70.68 a dollar, respectively.

The dollar index was a touch higher at 96.99 in early Asian trade, managing to recover from an overnight low of 96.55 after the Federal Reserve rowed back from a more aggressive policy tightening path even as it gave markets the impression of being much less cautious than they had anticipated.

In a widely anticipated decision, the US central bank hiked interest rates by 25 basis points and forecast fewer rate increases next year than it had at its September policy meeting.

The fall in rupee comes after the three straight session of gains for the domestic unit, during which it has rallied by a hefty 151 paise.

On Wednesday, the rupee pared early gains but managed to end 5 paise higher at 70.39 against the US dollar on increased selling of the greenback by exporters amid benign crude oil prices.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 144.76 crore Tuesday, as per provisional data.

In debt markets, the yields on the 10-year government bonds rose 0.2 percent to 7.24 percent after closing at 7.22 percent on Wednesday. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

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First Published:Dec 20, 2018 9:14 AM IST