Mumbai, Jul 20: In volatile trade, the rupee today fell 20 paise to settle at 55.32 against the US dollar tracking weakness in local shares amid a firm dollar overseas as the Eurozone debt problems resurfaced.
Good dollar demand from importers, mainly oil refiners as Brent North Sea crude slid to USD 106.65 in London deals, also weighed on rupee while sustained capital inflows limited its fall to some extent, forex dealers said.
The rupee resumed lower at 55.25 a dollar from its previous close of 55.12 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market today and immediately touched a high of 55.08.
With the euro falling against the dollar on reports that Spain's Valencia region will seek help to repay loans, the sentiment in favour of rupee changed, traders said.
The rupee fell down to day's low of 55.33 at the fag end before closing at 55.32, showing a fall of 0.36 per cent. For the week, it lost 0.3 per cent against the dollar.
The dollar index was up by 0.21 per cent against a basket of six major currencies as appetite for risk assets. The euro hit a session low against the dollar of USD 1.219, from around USD 1.223 levels earlier.
“The rupee witnessed a volatile session re-visiting the high and low of the day tracking weak global cues. The dollar index headed for fresh intra-day highs during the session on global risk aversion,” said Pramit Brahmbhatt, CEO, Alpari Financial Services (India).
We don't expect much would be done after the presidential election as well on account of political hurdles and global uncertainties, India Forex Advisors CEO Abhishek Goenka said.
Meanwhile, Indian stocks fell today on concerns over differences in the UPA coalition with Sensex dropping by over 120 points, snapping a three-day upsurge. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) infused USD 38.78 million yesterday as per Sebi data.
The premium for the forward dollar fell back on fresh receipts by exporters.
The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in December ended lower at 158-160 paise from Thursday's close of 160-162 paise.
The premium for far-forward contracts maturing in June also settled weak at 304-306 paise from 308-310 paise. The RBI fixed the reference rate for the US dollar at 55.1515 and for euro at 67.6030.
The rupee turned negative against the pound sterling to end at 86.79 from previous close of 86.46 and also declined against the Japanese yen to 70.42 per 100 yen from 70.15. However, it improved further to 67.57 per euro from its last close of 67.74.
