Mumbai: The Indian rupee snapped its 4-week losing streak, recovering 26 paise to 61.35 against the American currency on fresh dollar selling by exporters and some banks despite weak local equities and capital outflows from foreign funds.
The rupee resumed higher at 61.41 per dollar as against the last weekend's level of 61.61 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market and hovered in a range of 61.5150 per dollar and 60.90 per dollar before concluding the week at 61.35 per dollar, showing a gain of 26 paise or 0.42 percent.
The rupee had lost 122 paise or 2.02 percent in the previous four weeks.
Veracity Group CEO Pramit Brahmbhatt said," After a four week fall last week rupee appreciated by almost half percent. Investors preferred to book profit in the already elevated dollar and to end the week at USD 85.91. Although the rupee gain was capped by the weak local equities which closed at two month low for the week." The trading range for the Spot USD/INR pair is expected to be within 60.90 to 61.90.
Indian local equities traded low during the week taking cue from the concern over the growth in china which hammered the metal stocks and forced it to lead the decline. Weak German export data released last week disappointed and raised the concern over the growth of European countries.
After 12 weeks dollar index posted its first weekly fall last week. Investors chose to book profit mainly after Fed reserve in its minutes indicated that the interest rate will remain near zero for the considerable time after it stops buying assets, he added.
In the forward market, premium ended lower on fresh receipts by exporters.
The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in March dropped to 221-223 paise from 234.5-236.5 paise last weekend and far-forward contracts maturing in September, 2015 also dipped to 452-454 paise from 473.5-475.5 paise.
The RBI fixed the reference rate for the USD at 61.1624 and the euro at 77.6701 from preceding weekend's level of 61.7511 and 77.9546 respectively.
The rupee recovered sharply against the pound sterling at 98.50 from 99.72 last weekend while remained weak against the Japanese currency to end at 56.93 per 100 yen from 56.05.
It, however, fell back to 77.65 per euro from 77.56 previous weekend.
