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Rupee may touch 58 this week: experts

In the absence of any positive news flow and decisive policy actions, the rupee is showing weakness

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Press Trust of India Mumbai
Last Updated : Jan 24 2013 | 1:49 AM IST

As concerns relating to both domestic as well as global economy continue to loom large, the already battered rupee is likely to further fall this week and may touch the 58 level to a dollar, industry experts have said.

"After breaching the strong resistance level of 57.30 to a dollar, the rupee is likely to slide further and may touch 58 level in the near-term," Geojit Comtrade currency strategist Hemal Doshi told PTI.

He further said in the absence of any positive news flow and decisive policy actions, the rupee is showing weakness.

On Friday, the rupee fell to an all-time low of 57.37 intra-day against the dollar on intense demand for the US currency but ended at 57.11, recording this year's biggest fall of 85 paise in a day.

"There are issues relating to twin deficits in the domestic economy. Also, after the elections in Greece, there are concerns relating to Spain, Italy and even Portugal, which indicates that any solution to the euro-zone problem will be long-drawn," Union Bank of India, treasury head V J Mhatre said.

He added the lack of policy action from the government will add to the weakness of the domestic currency.

While current account deficit is sniffing at 4% of GDP in the last fiscal, the fiscal deficit had reached 5.7% against a budgeted 4.6% during this period.

The domestic currency has lost 27% in the last one year, making it the worst performing currency in Asia and second worst performing among the BRIC nations, after the Brazilian real which has shed nearly 36%.

Other currency experts also said that lack of monetary easing from the Federal Reserve has triggered a chase for the US dollar, which has made the currencies of emerging market weaker against the dollar.

"Over the next week, we would expect the rupee falling to 58-58.40 with support around 56.40-56.50 level," Kotak Securities senior manager for currency derivatives research desk Anindya Banerjee said.

As per the brokerage firm, the rupee movement will depend on the coming week's European Union summit, which is expected to discuss measures on combating the crises in this region.

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First Published: Jun 24 2012 | 12:52 PM IST

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