Recovering part of early sharp losses on late dollar selling by exporters, the rupee on Monday closed at 49.15/16 against the US currency, down by 19 paise, on weak equities.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit opened sharply lower at 49.45/46 a dollar from last close of 48.96/97 and immediately touched a low of 49.57 on distinctly weak opening of stocks.
Dealers attributed the steep fall in the rupee at initial stages to sustained dollar demand by importers and sluggish stock markets.
However, late dollar selling by exporters and pull-back in euro from early fall helped the rupee to bounce back to a high of 49.14 before concluding at 49.15/16.
“Dollar demand from oil importers helped dollar to gain against Rupee,” Pramit Brahmbhatt, CEO, Alpari Financial Services (India) said.
“Looking at the strong dollar one can expect Rupee to trade near 50.00 levels and the trading range for the USD/INR will be 49.00 to 49.50 tomorrow,” he added.
The BSE benchmark Sensex today plunged by over 302 points or 1.84 per cent.
The dollar index was just stable with downward bias against its major rivals and New York crude oil was trading above $ 78 a barrel in European market on Monday.
