In line with listless trading in stocks, the rupee on Friday ended flat at 55.28 against the US dollar on alternate bouts of buying and selling.
The rupee resumed weak at 55.40 a dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market as against overnight close of 55.27 and immediately touched a low of 55.50 on the back of early weakness in domestic stock market.
FIIs, which have pumped in over Rs 500 crore daily in last few sessions, bought stocks worth just Rs 83.16 crore as per provisional data.
While some buying activity after the mid-session helped the rupee recover to a high of 55.25, it finally settled at 55.28, down one paisa over yesterday’s closing value.
Brokers said the rupee remained under pressure for most part of the day as the dollar index was up by 0.17 per cent against a basket of six major global currencies.
Dollar demand from importers helped the US currency rise but dollar selling by exporters nullified its gains against rupee.
“We saw rupee continuing with its depreciating trend against the US dollar, as expected. The weaker than expected data from China, weakness in the Euro and a rebound in the US dollar added to the weakness in Indian rupee,” said Abhishek Goenka, Founder & CEO, India Forex Advisors.
On a weekly basis, the rupee strengthened by 0.7 per cent on sustained foreign funds inflows in equities. They have put in $ 11.21 billion so far in the calender year (till August 9) according to Sebi data.
Meanwhile, the Indian stock market benchmark Sensex, which was down by 89.50 points at mid-session, closed down by 3.13 points on Friday.
