Rupee falls 11 p to 53.81 on dollar demand

Defying positive sentiments in the stock market, the rupee on Friday snapped a three-day winning trend to close 11 paise down at 53.81 against the dollar amid fresh demand of the US currency from importers.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit commenced stable at its overnight closing level of 53.70 and immediately touched a high of 53.60 on firm local stocks amid some dollar selling by exporters.

The dollar index, a gauge of six major global rivals, was up by 0.35% as traders laid bets ahead of the release of crucial October non-farm US payrolls data, experts said.

This led to a demand from importers as businesses wanted to lock the US currency at cheaper rates in anticipation of sharper rise in coming days, they added.

This sudden dollar demand from importers and strong dollar overseas weighed on the rupee and it fell back to a low of 53.82. FII inflows worth $70 in stocks helped cushion the currency's fall partially. The rupee concluded marginally better at 53.81 — a fall of 11 paise or 0.21%. It had risen by 38 paise since Tuesday.

The rupee's fall comes on a day the Indian stock market benchmark Sensex closed higher by 193.75 points. The rupee could not hold on to its gains on Friday on account of positive stock markets and we expect the rupee to be in the range of 53.50-54.25 for the next few days, said Abhishek Goenka, Founder & CEO, India Forex Advisors.

"Rupee continued to trade in a tad range with weakening bias. Euro remained on a weak note after the zone's October manufacturing numbers witnessed contraction...the dollar index edged higher due to risk aversion after European stocks declined," Pramit Brahmbhatt, CEO, Alpari Financial Services (India) said.

Bond yields gain 7 bps

... contd.

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