Rupee slips 12 paise against USD; Fed meet in focus

The rupee weakened further today and closed 12 paise lower at 67.54 against the US dollar on steady demand for the greenback from importers and corporates.
Currency traders stayed on sidelines amid extreme caution ahead of Wednesday's FOMC rate decision.
Heavy capital outflows from foreign funds and release of domestic macroeconomic data, as government will release inflation data based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) later in the day, largely weighed on trade.
The home currency opened substantially weak at 67.47 as compared to last Friday's closing level of 67.42 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market.
It remained under pressure throughout the day and touched an intra-day low of 67.55 during late afternoon deals before ending at 67.54, revealing a loss of 12 paise, or 0.18 per cent.

In worldwide trade, the dollar steadied against the yen and euro on Tuesday after its weakest day in a week, with markets still uneasy that a Federal Reserve meeting ending on Wednesday may provoke more investors to take out greenback's recent gains.

The US dollar index was quoted modestly higher at 101.12 in late afternoon trade.
Meanwhile, the RBI today fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 67.4867 and euro at 71.7654.
In cross-currency trades, the rupee fell back sharply against the pound sterling to end at 85.78 from 85.01 and also retreated against the euro to finish at 71.65 as compared to 71.43 last weekend.

In cross-currency trades, the rupee fell against the
pound sterling to close at 83.96/98 from 83.53/55 and moved down against the euro to settle at 71.35/37 from 71.16/18.
It rose against the Japanese yen to 58.92/94 from 58.95/97 previously.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 504.51 crore last Friday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.
The Indian benchmark Sensex moved up by 17.37 points, or 0.06 per cent, to close at 28,351.62 today.
In forward market today, premium for dollar declined on fresh receivings from exporters.
The benchmark 6-month premium payable in July dropped to 151-153 paise from 153-155 paise Last Friday and far forward January 2017 contract held stable at 301-303 paise.

The RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 66.9663 and for the euro at 71.1718.