The rupee on Monday broke its two-day losing string and recovered by 19 paise to settle at 49.82/83 against the U.S. currency following smart rebound in local stocks and fresh dollar selling by exporters.
However, firm dollar overseas amid capital outflows restricted the rupee rise, dealers said.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the local currency opened strong at 49.85/86 a dollar from last Friday’s close of 50.01/02.
It later moved in a range of 49.60 and 50.01 before concluding at 49.82/83, showing a rise of 0.37 per cent.
In straight last two sessions, the rupee had dipped by a whopping 86 paise or 1.75 per cent. It had dropped to a 2-1/2-year low of 50.32 on last Friday.
The BSE benchmark Sensex, which was up by almost 320 points at initial stages, pared its gains, still ending higher by 153.64 points or 0.92 per cent.
The dollar index was up by over 0.1 per cent against a basket of currencies while New York crude oil was trading below $88 a barrel in European market on Monday.
FIIs pulled out $88.2 million in the last week, as per SEBI data.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will announce its monetary policy review on Tuesday.
The rupee premium for the forward dollar closed steady to better on stray paying pressure from banks and corporates.
The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in March settled stable at its last weekend’s level of 91-1/2- 93-1/2 paise while far-forward contracts maturing in September strengthened further higher to end at 143-1/2-145-1/2 paise from 138-1/2-140-1/2 paise previously.
The RBI fixed the reference rate for the U.S. dollar at Rs. 49.8745 and for the euro at Rs. 69.5253.
The rupee recouped against the pound sterling to finish at Rs. 79.38/40 from last weekend’s close of Rs. 79.51/53.
It also turned positive to end at Rs. 68.96/98 per euro from Rs. 69.02/04 previously. It, however, moved down further against the Japanese yen to Rs. 65.45/47 per 100 yen from last close of Rs. 65.19/21.
