Rupee higher, but US yields and oil seen nipping any rally

MUMBAI, Oct 20 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee was marginally higher on Friday, shrugging off weak risk appetite, rising oil prices and decline in Asian peers on expectations that the central bank will continue to support the currency.

The rupee was last at 83.1875 to the U.S. dollar, up from 83.2450 in the previous session.

The 10-year U.S. yield hit a multi-year high after the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said further policy tightening could be needed to tame inflation. Other Asian currencies dropped.

The rupee is facing several headwinds, but when there is support from a “dead set on” central bank, “not much will happen”, a foreign exchange salesperson at a mid-sized private bank said.

Rupee may not weaken, thanks to the Reserve Bank of India, but “any notable recovery” is out of question, the person added.

The RBI has in the last several sessions intervened to prevent the rupee from weakening past the 83.29 record low, according to traders. Late on Thursday, the intervention was particularly aggressive, they said.

“USDINR has been extremely resilient, but biased higher and could remain so for the foreseeable future,” said Srinivas Puni, managing director at forex advisory firm QuantArt Market Solutions.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was at 4.96% after hitting 5% late in the U.S. session, the highest since 2007. Fed Chair Powell on Thursday reckoned that the rise in yields was due to a robust economy, term premiums and quantitative tightening.

Oil prices were up for a fourth straight day with Brent crude climbing to $93.30. Brent is up nearly 10% since the breakout of the Middle East conflict.

Meanwhile, the USD/INR overnight cash swap rate was at 0.58 paisa ahead of Mondays maturity of the RBIs $5 billion swap.