Rupee halts two-day fall on soft $; up 8 paise at 66.79

The rupee on Friday staged a recovery after two days of fall and ended eight paise higher at 66.79 against the US currency on account of heavy dollar unwinding by exporters ahead of an extended weekend.

Besides, a suspected Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervention largely supported the local currency, says a forex dealer.

Moreover, speculative traders, avoiding taking long positions ahead of the next week’s US Fed meeting, too, weighed on trade.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit commenced on a bearish note at 66.90 following the month-end demand for the American currency from importers and banks.
 
However, overcoming the highly volatile momentum, the local currency quickly shrugged off the drifting trend and traded range-bound before making a strong recovery to hit a fresh intra-day high of 66.76 in late afternoon deals.

State-run lenders sold the greenback on behalf of RBI. It finally settled at 66.79, revealing a smart gain of 8 paise, or 0.12 per cent.

In worldwide trade, the US dollar traded a bit soft against all major emerging market currencies ahead of key macro data outcome alongside the important third-quarter US gross domestic product figures.