Rupee snaps 3-day losing streak; settles 17 paise against dollar

Mumbai: Snapping its three-session losing streak, the rupee on Friday rose by 17 paise to close at 69.70 against the US dollar on weakening of the greenback in overseas markets and easing crude oil prices.

On a weekly basis, the rupee declined by 34 paise. At the interbank foreign exchange (forex), the domestic currency witnessed heavy volatility. The local unit opened at 69.78 a dollar and during the day it touched a low of 69.92 and high of 69.68 amid the allocation of key portfolios in the newly elected government. It finally settled at 69.70 per dollar, up 17 paise over its previous close. The rupee on Thursday had settled at 69.87 to the US dollar.

"After three days of consecutive fall, rupee is trading with 17 paise gain against the dollar as crude oil extended the losses amid global demand concern. Beside strength in Asian currencies against American dollar, the foreign fund flow in domestic equity market supported rupee appreciation," said V K Sharma, Head PCG & Capital Markets Strategy, HDFC Securities.

In the newly elected government, Amit Shah Friday was allotted the Home ministry, Rajnath Singh (Defence), S Jaishankar (External Affairs minister) and Nirmala Sitharaman (Finance). Narendra Modi was on Thursday sworn in as the Prime Minister for a second term helming a 58-member ministry.

Besides 25 Cabinet ministers including Modi, Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani, Piyush Goyal and Jaishankar, nine were sworn in as Minister of State with Independent charge and another 24 as Minister of State.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.06 per cent to 98.08.

Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 2.54 per cent to trade at USD 65.17 per barrel.

Foreign funds infused Rs 676.15 crore in the capital markets on a net basis Friday, provisional data showed. Government bonds rose, leading to 1.44 per cent drop in the yield to 7.03 per cent.

In a highly volatile session, the benchmark BSE Sensex ended 118 points lower, dragged by losses mainly in auto and financial stocks. The NSE Nifty too edged 23 points down to settle below the 12,000-mark.

The Financial Benchmark India Private Ltd (FBIL) set the reference rate for the rupee/dollar at 69.7852 and for rupee/euro at 77.7095. The reference rate for rupee/British pound was fixed at 88.1666 and for rupee/100 Japanese yen at 63.59.