Rupee recovers from 7-week low, up 16 paise

Mumbai: The rupee today reclaimed some lost ground by rebounding 16 paise to 64.73 following fresh bouts of dollar selling by banks and exporters. The domestic currency had yesterday slumped by a whopping 34 paise to end at a fresh seven-week low.

The rupee today opened lower at 64.91 from Tuesday's closing value of 64.89 at the forex market on sustained dollar demand. After hitting a fresh low of 64.96 in late morning deals, the local unit recouped smartly towards the fag-end trade session and recaptured an intra-day high of 64.72 before ending at 64.73, revealing a good gain of 16 paise, or 0.25 per cent.

The RBI, meanwhile, fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 64.8586 and for the euro at 72.4730. The dollar index, which tracks the US currency against a basket of six major rivals, was trading marginally down 0.09 per cent at 97.19.

In cross-currency trades, the rupee rebounded against the pound sterling to close at 83.94 from 84.19 per pound and recovered against the euro to settle at 72.43 as compared to 72.90 earlier. It also regained sharply against the Japanese yen to finish at 57.90 per 100 yens from 58.33 yesterday.

However, risk events ahead kept overall forex trading mood bit nervous and cautious with investors looking to the minutes of the latest FOMC meet later in the day amid strength in the greenback. Robust capital inflows into the equities and debt largely supported the recovery momentum where as local markets witnessed continued sell-offs.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 400.53 crore yesterday. Meanwhile, bourses succumbed to heavy profit-taking for the second straight session led by frontline heavyweights even as sentiment remained volatile amid escalating tensions on the border adjoining Pakistan.

The flagship Sensex fell 63.61 points to end at 30,301.64, while broader Nifty was down 25.60 points at 9,360.55. In worldwide trade, the US dollar was trading a little firmer on some follow-through buying as comments from a senior Federal Reserve official rekindled expectations of possible US interest rate hike in June.

Commodity-related currencies like the Australian and New Zealand dollars remained under pressured after Moody's downgraded its credit rating for the world's second-largest economy China.

In forward market today, premium for dollar continued to trade subdued due to persistent receivings from exporters. The benchmark six-month premium payable in October edged lower to 131-132.5 paise from 132-134 paise and the far forward April 2018 contract also moved down to 278.5-280.5 paise from 281-283 paise on Tuesday.

In the international commodity front, crude prices staged a rebound on expectation that OPEC producers will signal an extension of the production cut to drain global oversupply.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) ministers and other producers were meeting on Thursday. The benchmark Brent crude oil was up 25 cents a barrel at USD 54.40 in early Asian trade.