Rupee logs first loss in three days, down 4 paise at 62.57

February 05, 2014 07:00 pm | Updated May 18, 2016 06:11 am IST - Mumbai

A file picture of Indian Rupee. Photo: G. Ramakrishna.

A file picture of Indian Rupee. Photo: G. Ramakrishna.

Falling for the first time in three days, the rupee washed out initial gains to end four paise lower at 62.57 on Wednesday on caution ahead of US non-farm payrolls data and sustained capital outflows from Indian markets.

The rupee’s movement was in contrast to Indian equities.

A weak dollar index did not help the currency close in the positive territory as sentiment remained weak, traders say.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit resumed higher at 62.42 a dollar from overnight close of 62.53 and improved further to a high of 62.35 on sustained dollar selling by exporters. It, however, later fell back to a low of 62.62 before settling at 62.57, a fall of four paise or 0.06 per cent.

In the previous two sessions, the rupee gained 15 paise.

Experts said FII outflows in equities worth Rs 576 crore kept the pressure on rupee on Wednesday. On Tuesday, they took out over Rs 1,200 crore.

Foreign Institutional Investors have also sold Indian debt worth over a billion dollars in 9-10 days, they added.

A better-than-expected US jobs data on Friday would help the US Federal Reserve to decide in favour of trimming its monetary stimulus further, said a PSU bank treasury head.

On Tuesday, Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan said that India was better prepared to deal with any further US Fed tapering, but the country needs to remain vigilant to face eventualities, which also supported the rupee falling.

The equity benchmark S&P BSE Sensex on Wednesday bounced back from initial losses and closed up by 49.10 points.

Pramit Brahmbhatt, CEO, Alpari Financial Services, (India) said, “Rupee continued to trade sideways near 62.50 levels...expect rupee to trade near 63.00 levels in coming days.”

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.