Washing out early gains, rupee on Tuesday depreciated by 14 paise to close at 59.66 on defence-related dollar demand and losses in local stock market.
A firm dollar overseas and concerns over fresh capital outflows weighed on the rupee, a forex dealer said.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit commenced slightly better at 59.50 a dollar from previous close of 59.52. It later rallied further to a high of 59.17 on initial dollar selling by exporters.
However, rupee met with strong resistance and fell back sharply to a low of 59.7150 before settling at 59.66, showing a fall of 14 paise or 0.24 per cent.
Yesterday, it had fallen by 13 paise or 0.22 per cent, snapping a three-day gain after closing at historic low of 60.72 on June 26.
Meanwhile, the Indian benchmark S&P BSE Sensex on Tuesday dipped by 113.57 points or 0.58 per cent. FIIs sold shares worth Rs 1.48 crore on Monday, as per provisional data with stock exchanges.
The dollar index was up by 0.21 per cent against a basket of six major global rivals.
Benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in December inched up to 175-177 paise from overnight close of 174-176 paise. Far-forward contracts maturing in June also firmed up to 347-1/2-349-1/2 paise from 341-1/2-343-1/2 paise.
RBI fixed the reference rate for the US dollar at 59.4145 and for the euro at 77.6085.
Rupee recovered against the pound sterling to 90.43 from Monday’s close of 90.56 while eased further to 77.68 per euro from 77.63.
It, however, fell back slightly against the Japanese yen to 59.79 per 100 yen from last close of 59.75.
