Rupee rebounds from 1-month low;closes up 13 paise against USD

Mumbai, Aug 23 (PTI) The rupee today recovered fromone-month low level to close higher by 13 paise at 67.06 adollar on the back of selling of the US currency by banks andexporters. Weakness in the dollar in overseas markets along withcontinued optimism over capital inflows predominantly boostedthe rupee value, dealers said. Unwinding of long dollar positions by banks too aided thesentiment, they added. The domestic currency had closed at one-month low of 67.19against US currency on Monday amid fears of rate hike by theUS Federal Reserve. The domestic unit opened slightly higher at 67.14 at theInterbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market. It maintained thestrong recovery momentum throughout the trade and touched anintra-day high of 67.04 in late afternoon trade. The rupee finally ended at 67.06, showing a good gain of13 paise, or 0.19 per cent. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) withdrew Rs1,326.95 crore from debt and equity markets yesterday,according to the provisional data. The Reserve Bank fixed the reference rate for the dollarat 67.0885 and euro at 76.0381. In cross-currency trades, the rupee weakened furtheragainst the pound sterling and finished at 88.42 as comparedto 88.08 and drifted against the euro to end at 76.05 from75.96 yesterday. It also fell against the Japanese yen and settled at 66.97per 100 yens from 66.82 earlier. In the meantime, equities snapped a two-day declineand ended marginally higher on the back of renewed buying inIT counters as the BSE Sensex moved up 4.67 points to close at27,990.21 while Nifty gained 3.45 points to 8,632.60. In the forward market, premium for dollar continued totrade sluggish owing to sustained receivings from exporters. The benchmark six-month premium for January eased to175-177 paise from 176-178 paise and the forward July 2017contract also edged lower to 374-376 paise from 375-377 paiseyesterday. On the global front, US dollar slipped against theother major currencies as investors locked in profits from thegreenback’s recent rally despite positive remarks on interestrates by Federal Reserve officials. The US dollar index, which measures the greenback’sstrength against a trade-weighted basket of six majorcurrencies, was down 0.24 per cent at 94.30 in early trade.PTI EDM RHBMR