Rupee jumps 21 paise to 66.10 Vs USD

Mumbai: The rupee rallied for the second straight session by gaining 21 paise to end at 66.10 against US dollar Friday on heavy selling of the American currency from banks and exporters, regardless of weak domestic macro-economic data and fall in equities.

However, the American currency's firming trend in overseas trade coupled with disappointing IIP numbers and rising retail inflation capped the rupee's gains.

Local dealers avoided taking any long dollar positions ahead of the weekend and that also supported the upmove, a forex trader said.

The domestic currency resumed firmly higher at 66.18 per dollar compared to 66.31 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on Tuesday.

Maintaining its solid rising momentum, the home currency touched a fresh intra-day high of 66.09 before closing at 66.10, showcasing a smart rise of 21 paise, or 0.32 per cent.

The rupee briefly hit an intra-day low of 66.24.

It had gained 13 paise in the last session.

Meanwhile, the country's industrial production slackened to a four-month low of 3.6 per cent while retail inflation inched up to 5 per cent, government data showed on Thursday.

The dollar regained its strength against the other major currencies during the Asian session after falling modestly amid some caution ahead of the US retail sales and the consumer confidence data release later in the day, though growing risk-off sentiment capped further gains.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback's strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.19 per cent at 98.75.

Meanwhile, the Indian equities joined the global stock market rout following a renewed commodity-led sell-off raised concerns about China's ability to drive global growth and also reassuring comments from slew of Fed-members that a December lift-off can be considered.

The flagship stock indices BSE-Sensex plunged by 256.42 or 0.99 per cent to end at 25,610.53.