Mumbai: Continued its slide for the third straight session, the Indian rupee on Tuesday fell 5 paise to end at 61.92 against the Greenback following sustained demand for the American currency from importers and a better dollar in overseas trades. Widening fiscal deficit, which rose to Rs 5.68 lakh crore in April-January period, breaching the budget estimate by 107 per cent along with sluggish core data added some pressure on the Indian rupee, said forex brokers.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the rupee commenced modestly lower at 61.89 a dollar from its previous close of 61.87. It moved down further to a low of 61.94 owing to initial volatility in domestic equities. However, the rupee rebounded smartly to touch an intra-day high of 61.79 on the back of fresh dollar selling by exporters and participants. It concluded at 61.92 per dollar, disclosing a loss of 5 paise, or 0.08 per cent.
Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 424.79 crore yesterday, as per provisional data. The strong rallying momentum in bourses lifted the benchmark Sensex by 135 points to finish at 29,593.73 while the Nifty index ended at a new closing peak of 8,996.25 after briefly crossing 9,000 for the first time in its history.
Benchmark brent crude rebounded to trade above the $60 a barrel after a brief overnight sharp slide tracking a drop in US rig counts, forex analysts said. The dollar index (DXY), which measures the Greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.07 per cent after climbing 95.51 - its highest level since September 2003.
Veracity Group CEO Pramit Brahmbhatt said the trading range for the spot USD/INR pair is expected to be within 61.50 to 62.40. Meanwhile, the forward premia firmed up on paying pressure from corporates.
The benchmark six-month premium payable in August edged higher to 244.5-246.5 from Monday's level of 242.5-244.5 paise and the forward contracts maturing in February 2016 also rallied to 465.5-467.5 as compared to 457-459 paise. The Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate for dollar at 61.8387 and for Euro at 69.2470.
The rupee rebounded against the pound to 95.16 per pound from 95.35 previously and also bounced back sharply against the euro to 69.16 compared to 69.50. However, the rupee eased marginally to 51.69 per 100 yen from 51.68 on Monday.
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