Mumbai: The rupee continued to fall against the American currency for the second consecutive week and touched 13-month intra-day low of 63.89 per dollar on persistent dollar demand from oil companies and sustained foreign capital outflows.
The rupee declined even after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in Parliament that there was "no serious crisis" for the domestic currency as it was stabilising after a few days of "volatility".
"I don't see any serious crisis on the real value of rupee," he asserted.
The rupee opened lower at 62.50 per USD and plunged to 13-month low of 63.89 this week before ending at 63.30 per dollar, showing a loss of 101 paise or 1.62 percent amid chaos in global financial markets caused by volatility in Russian currency rouble.
It has dropped by 153 paise or 2.44 percent in two straight weeks.
It moved in a wide range of 62.4500 per dollar and 63.89 per dollar during the week.
Forex dealers said strength in dollar which hit multi- year high in overseas markets, also weighed on the rupee.
Foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth USD 636.59 mln during first four days of the week, as per Sebi data.
Pramit Brahmbhatt, Veracity Group CEO, said: "The rupee lost... Taking cues from the dollar demand from oil companies which dented the rupee movement and also the dollar index was trading multi-year high...."
Dealers in foreign exchange said the Reserve Bank may have intervened in the markets but it seemed dollars selling through state-ran banks did not pay off.
Weakness in financial markets abroad following continued downslide in global crude oil (Brent) prices below USD 60 a barrel amid fall in Chinese manufacturing data also put pressure on the local currency.
The US Federal Reserve in its two-day monetary policy meet that concluded this week said it was on course to raise interest rates though not right away.
In the forward market, premia dropped further on sustained receivings by exporters.
The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in May tumbled to 196-198 paise from last weekend's close of 203.5-205.5 paise.
Far-forward contracts maturing in November 2015 also slumped to 401-403 paise from 407-409 paise.
The RBI fixed the reference rate for the US dollar at 63.0670 and the euro at 77.4589 from 62.4422 and 77.3846 from last weekend respectively.
The rupee also fell further to 98.91 against the pound sterling from 97.87 last weekend and also moved down further to 77.64 per euro from 77.56.
It too declined further to 53.04 per 100 Japanese yen from 52.69.
