Rupee crawls to hold 3-week peak of 66.40 Vs USD

Mumbai: The rupee maintained its up move for the fourth straight day Friday in a highly volatile trade and appreciated by a modest two paise to settle at 66.40 against the greenback.

Lowering country's growth projections and a sharp fall in local stocks pressurised the home currency to give up early
strong gains.

Tracking strong dollar movement, the home currency opened a tad lower at 66.48 against Thursday's three-week high of 66.42 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market and depreciated further to 66.52 due to some dollar demand.

But, later the rupee staged a smart rebound and accelerated gains to hit a session's intra-day high of 66.3150 before ending at 66.40, showing a marginal gain of 2 paise, or 0.03 percent.

It has gained 69 paise in four trading sessions.

The government lowered its economic growth forecast for 2015-16 to 7-7.5 percent from 8.1-8.5 percent, but said budget deficit target will be met as higher tax revenues offset a shortfall in PSU stake sale.

However, Indian equities snapped a four-session rally and plummeted sharply, joining a global market sell-off as investors digested the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.

In worldwide trade, the bullish US dollar retreated marginally against its major peers after initial upmove, pulling back from a two-week high despite overnight robust macro data.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan surprised the market with extra stimulus measures, though kept monetary policy unchanged as expected.

The dollar index, which tracks the world's reserve currency against a basket of its peers, is down 0.28 percent at 98.92.

The stock market flagship index Sensex tumbled by 284 points to end at 25,519.22, while the broader Nifty plunged over 82 points to settle at 7,761.95.

Meanwhile, foreign investors bought shares worth Rs 638.01 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.

In forward market today, premium for dollar showed a easy to steady trend.

The benchmark six-month premium payable in May quoted at 187-189 paise from 188-189 paise and far forward November 2016 contract eased to 396-398 paise against 397.50-398.50 paise yesterday.

The RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 66.4235 and for the euro at 72.1359.

In cross-currency trades, the rupee slipped marginally against the pound sterling to end at 99.15 from overnight close of 99.13 and also fell back against the Japanese currency to settle at 54.73 from previous close of 54.25 per 100 yen.

The home currency, however, strengthened further against the euro to end at 71.90 compared to 72.05 earlier.