The rupee remained under pressure against the US dollar for the third-straight day today, depreciating 7 paise to end at a fresh 3-week low of 64.59 on steady demand of the US currency amid a global oil rout.
Forex market traded with a broadly hesitant tone on growing uncertainty about global economic growth as sell-off in crude prices remained unabated, triggering volatility in financial markets.
Demand for the greenback from banks and importers and little support from local share market too weighed on trade.
This is the lowest closing for the home currency since May 30.
Meanwhile, local equities relinquished strong early gains and ended almost flat in another cautious session as traders booked profit after the benchmark Sensex hit a fresh record high during the day amid bearish global sentiment.
World stock markets too reacted to tumbling crude oil prices.
RBI Governor Urjit Patel had argued for avoiding premature policy action citing "high uncertainty" on inflation outlook while voting for status quo on interest rates at the monetary policy review earlier this month, as per the minutes of the MPC meeting.
Foreign funds continued to offload Indian equities worth Rs 152.82 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
The rupee opened a tad weak at 64.53 per dollar from overnight close of 64.52 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market. Soon, it recovered to hit a fresh intra-day high of 64.45 briefly in early morning before succumbing to dollar pressure once again.
After touching a session low of 64.60 towards the fag-end trade, the local unit ended at 64.59, showing a fall of 7 paise, or 0.11 per cent.
The Indian unit has lost 16 paise in last three days.
The RBI, meanwhile, fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 64.4950 and for the euro at 72.0732.
Globally, the greenback traded marginally lower against other major currencies on Thursday despite upbeat US housing sector data as traders turned their attention to the upcoming report on jobless claims.
The dollar index, which tracks the US currency against a basket of six major rivals, was down at 97.19.
In cross-currency trades, the rupee bounced back against the pound sterling to close at 81.87 from 82.00 per pound, but dropped further against the euro to settle at 72.15 from 71.94 earlier.
The home currency also lost further ground against the Japanese Yen to finish at 58.00 per 100 yens from 57.94.
In forward market today, premium for dollar showed a steady-to-easy trend in the absence of market moving factors.
The benchmark six-month premium payable in November was quoted at 127-128 paise from 126-128 paise, while the far forward May 2018 contract edged up to 271.5-272.5 paise from 269-271 paise Thursday.
On the International commodity front, crude prices edged up on Friday, recovering some of their steep losses made during the week.
The brent crude futures were up 28 cents at USD 45.50 a barrel in early Asian trade, while US' West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures traded at USD 43.04 a barrel.
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