Mumbai: In a choppy trade, the rupee ended barely steady against the American currency at 64.97 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market.
The rupee opened marginally lower at 64.97 per dollar as against the previous closing level of 64.96 at the Forex market and moved down further to 64.99 on initial dollar demand from banks and importers.
However, it recovered from initial losses to 64.93 on selling of dollars by exporters before ending at the same opening level of 64.97, showing a mere loss of one paise or 0.02 per cent.
The domestic unit hovered in a range of 64.93 and 64.99 per dollar during the day.
Meanwhile, the forex dealers were in a wait-and-watch mode ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting, which is starting from today.
The dollar index was trading lower by 0.07 per cent against a basket of six currencies in the late afternoon trade.
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In the global market, dollar fell against most of its rivals yesterday on weaker-than-expected US data on housing and manufacturing sectors.
Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex ended lower by 108.52 points or 0.40 per cent today. Pramit Brahmbhatt, Veracity Group CEO, said, "Today not much movement was seen in the USD/INR pair. The pair traded range bound as investors awaited the US job data due tomorrow which will show the road ahead to the market. For the day, the
rupee ended near yesterday's close at 64.96. Also the local equities closed on weak note which did not supported the rupee
movement.
The trading range for the Spot USD/INR pair is expected to be within 64.60 to 65.40.
In forward market today, premium for dollar declined further on sustained receivings from exporters.
The benchmark six-month premium payable in March eased to 179-181 paise 181-182 paise yesterday while far forward Sept 2016 contract ended steady at 395-397 paise.
The RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 64.95 and for the euro at 71.84.
The rupee firmed up further against the pound sterling to finish at 99.61 from 99.69 previously while moved down against the euro to 71.82 from 71.66.
The domestic currency ended lower against the Japanese currency at 54.02 per 100 yen from 53.68.
