Rupee falls 6 p on fresh $ demand from importers

Forex dealers said slight weakness in dollar overseas capped the rupee’s losses to some extent.

The local unit opened a tad lower at 53.72 against the dollar from its Friday’s close of 53.71 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market.

However, it recovered to a high of 53.63 on the back of rally in local stocks and initial dollar selling by exporters, before falling to a low of 53.96 on dollar demand from importers, mainly oil refiners. It recovered some ground at the fag end to settle at 53.77, a fall of six paise, or 0.11%. In last two sessions, it had firmed up by 98 paise, or 1.79%.

“After witnessing sharp gains in the last two consecutive sessions, rupee started depreciating against the US dollar. Weak euro ahead of the euro-zone meeting and dollar index trading above 80 level have contributed to the weakness in rupee,” said Abhishek Goenka (Founder & CEO, India Forex Advisors).