Mumbai: Continuing its fall for the third straight session, the rupee on Monday lost three paise to close at 60.53 against the US currency, following sustained dollar demand from importers amid firm cues from overseas.
Fresh capital outflows also weighed on the rupee but bullish local equities restricted the fall to a major extent, a forex dealer said.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit commenced slightly lower at 60.52 a dollar from last weekend's close of 60.50 and was trapped in a narrow range of 60.4250 and 60.55 before settling at 60.53, a fall of three paise, or 0.05 percent.
The BSE benchmark today zoomed by 229.44 points to 26,867.55, completing long seven-session of gaining string while FIIs/FPIs sold shares worth Rs 710.63 crore last Thursday, as per provisional data.
The dollar index was up by 0.06 percent against its major global rivals.
Pramit Brahmbhatt, CEO, Veracity Group, said, "Today Rupee traded range bound and ended little bit lower. Rupee is expected to appreciate in coming days tracking gains in local equities. Today indices posted new all time high which helped Rupee to sustain against the strong dollar.
"Dollar is trading flat at the moment near previous close but is still floating 14 month high on closing basis. The trading range for the Spot rupee is expected to be within 60.20 to 60.80."
In forward market today, premium closed narrowly mixed.
The benchmark six-month premium payable in February edged down to 248.5-250.5 paise from last Thursday's close of 249-251 paise while far-forward contracts maturing in August, 2015 inched up to 495.5-497.5 paise from 495-497 paise.
The Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate for dollar at 60.4735 and for the euro at 79.3957.
The rupee fell back against the pound to 100.57 from last close of 100.35 while improved further to 58.06 per 100 Japanese yen from 58.34 and also remained firm to end at 79.52 per euro from 79.78 previously.
