BENGALURU, June 15 Reuters The Indian rupee edged lower on Thursday as broad strength in the dollar following the U.S. Federal Reserve hinting at further rate hikes this year hurt emerging market currencies.

The rupee was trading at 82.2200 to the dollar by 1017 a.m. IST, after closing at 82.0950 in the previous session.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday signalled in new projections that borrowing costs may need to rise by as much as half of a percentage point by the end of this year.

Policymakers see two more 25basispoint hikes this year.

Most of the Asian currencies were down 0.120.4. The offshore Chinese yuan extended declines against the dollar and hit a fresh low since November 2022.

The dollar bullish trend is seen post the Fed meeting in all currency pairs and the Fed dot plot shows further hike … U.S. yields are also going up. Hence, the rupee may depreciate a bit, a forex trader with a public sector bank said.

The dollar index dropped to its lowest in four weeks on Wednesday but was up 0.35 on Thursday. The twoyear U.S. yield rose in Asia after rising to its highest since March 10 to 4.8030.

There is a tussle going on, wherein the positive domestic factors are not letting the rupee depreciate much and the global factors are slightly negative, said Gaurang Somaiya, Forex Bullion Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

The dollar flows into equities have been consistent, Somaiya said.

On Wednesday, the rupee hit its highest since May 11 at 82.0725,…