Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: The Indian rupee broke its two-week of losing spree and appreciated by 14 paise to settle the shortened week at 63.42 against the Greenback following fresh dollar selling by exporters and some banks on the back of weak USD overseas.
The Forex market was closed on Friday, May 1, 2015, on account of "Maharashtra Day".
Sluggish local equities amid heavy offloading by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) mainly put pressure on the rupee value, a forex dealer said.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex plunged by 426.63 points or 1.55 pct, taking a total fall of over 1,868 points or 6.47 pct in the straight three week.
FPIs pulled out USD 610.63 mln during the first three days of the week, as per Sebi data.
The rupee commenced weak at 63.70 a dollar from last weekend's close of 63.56 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market but immediately touched a four-month intra-day low of 63.77 a dollar --level not seen when it had logged an intra-trade low of 63.79 on December 30, 2014-- on heavy dollar demand from importers, mainly oil refiners, to meet their month-end requirements.
Later, it bounced back to a high of 63.11 before giving some ground to settle lower at 63.42, still showing a rise of 14 paise or 0.22 pct. In last two-week, it had fallen by 125 paise or 2.01 pct.
In overseas market, the dollar showed weak trend on renewed concerns over the US economy after the Federal Reserve left open the chance of an inter-rate hike as early as June.
Pramit Brahmbhatt, Veracity Group CEO, said, "Rupee recovered this week and closed at 63.42. RBI is not in a mood to allow the currency to appreciate and we can see weakness from here going forward. It would be in the interest of the economy that we can see some weakness because the export competitiveness is being affected with the relative strength of the currency in the global perspective."
"The trading range for the Spot USD/INR pair is expected to be within 63.00 to 63.80," he added.
Forward dollar premium continued its downslide on constant receiving by exporters.
The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in September dropped to 188-190 paise from 119.5-202 paise last weekend and far-forward contract maturing in March also dipped to 401-403 paise from 415.5-417 paise.
The RBI fixed the reference rate for the US dollar at 63.5780 and the euro at 70.5334 from preceding weekend's level of 63.4006 and 68.4853, respectively.
The rupee tumbled further against the pound sterling to end the week at 97.77 from 96.17 previously weekend and also plunged to 70.95 per euro from 68.84.
It remained weak against the Japanese yen to end at 53.33 per 100 yen from 53.19 from preceding weekend's level.
With PTI Inputs
