Rupee recovers 7 paise to 64.31 against US dollar

The rupee today recovered modestly to close higher by 7 paise at 64.31 on bouts of dollar selling by exporters and banks amid firming equities.
Renewed dollar selling interest as well as growing expectations of more foreign fund inflows into equities largely supported the domestic currency.
The rupee had tumbled to a two-week low last Friday.
The local unit today opened higher at 64.27 from last weekend's closing value of 64.38 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on fresh selling of the American currency.
It made further gains to hit a high of 64.19 in early morning deals.
But, those gains didn't last longer as the rupee retreated sharply to touch a session's low of 64.3275 before ending at 64.31, showing a gain of 7 paise, or 0.11 per cent.

The RBI, meanwhile, fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 64.2154 and for the euro at 70.4957.

Taking cues from the global trend after the win of Emmanuel Macron in French presidential polls on Sunday, the forex market built upon that sentiment.
Domestic equities also regained some lost ground in a range-bound trade following good buying support in beaten down technology counters.
Asian shares were mostly higher Monday.
The flagship Sensex rose over 67 points to end at 29,926.15, while broader Nifty added 28.75 points at 9,314.05.
Meanwhile, India's foreign exchange reserves touched a life-time high of Rs 372.73 billion for the week ended April 28, surging by a whopping USD 1.594 billion supported by a sharp increase in the foreign currency assets, the Reserve Bank said.

Previously, they had touched a high of USD 371.99 billion in the week to September 30, 2016.
The country's forex kitty has been soaring and extremely strong in recent weeks due to surge of inflows in the midst of major policy initiatives taken by the Modi government, a forex dealer said.
The dollar index, which tracks the US currency against a basket of six major rivals, was up 0.02 per cent at 98.82.
In cross-currency trade, the Indian unit weakened further against the pound sterling to settle at 83.33 from 83.24 per pound.
However, the rupee bounced back against the euro to finish at 70.45 as compared to 70.55 and also recouped against the Japanese Yen to close at 57.11 per 100 yens from 57.23 previously.

In the forward market today, premium for dollar remained weak due to sustained receivings from exporters.
The benchmark six-month premium for October moved down to 151-153 paise from 152-154 paise and the far-forward April 2018 also eased to 309-311 paise from 310-312 paise last Friday.
In the international commodity front, crude prices rose modestly after weekend sell-off as talk of further supply cuts by major OPEC exporters outweighed the prospect of higher US production as a drilling boom spreads across North America.
Brent crude was up 40 cents at USD 49.50 a barrel in early Asian trade.