Futures point to weaker opening post-Fed

On Friday the rupee appreciated to a one-month high and bond yields fell to an over three-month low after the US Fed decided to keep interest rates unchanged in its meeting.

The Federal Reserve “made the decision appropriately by monitoring various situations”, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference after the Fed chose to maintain ultralow interest rates for now. “Dollar-selling sentiment emerged following the Fed´s decision, but the market still expects a rate hike in the future”, said Yosuke Hosokawa, head of FX sales team at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.

“[The Bank of Canada] really can’t cut interest rates with inflation where it is right now”, Evans said in an interview.

The global Monetary Fund says it will work with any Greek government resulting from Sunday’s election, but remains mum about its participation in another bailout of the country.

The U.S. economy is growing at over 2 percent and the unemployment rate has fallen to 5.1 percent.

“If tomorrow we don’t see that happening and we see a rate hike in September then we will see the gains from today disappear”.

“The markets are quite clearly on tenterhooks ahead of the Fed and there’s a bit of paralysis until we know the outcome of that meeting”, said Sam Tuck, senior currency strategist at ANZ Bank New Zealand Ltd.in Auckland.

The announcement triggered broad weakness for the dollar, and those losses were extended on Friday, with the greenback dropping half a percent against a currency basket to hit 94.063, its weakest since late August.

Analysts said the Fed officials were concerned about the unrealised target of 2-percent inflation, and they may wait until the next year to raise interest rates.

The Australian dollar edged up 0.1 percent to $0.7182 with investors focused on parliamentary testimony by Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens.

The German DAX closed marginally higher and France’s CAC 40 index rose 0.2 percent, while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 fell 0.7 percent.

But US Fed chair Janet Yellen indicated rates still may rise this year.

The Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate of the rupee at 65.9255 against the U.S. dollar.

The Indian currency opened higher at 66.15 per dollar as against the previous close of 66.46 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market.