Rupee slides for 2nd day, down 8 paise at 64.24

Mumbai: The rupee lost further ground on Friday and finished lower by 8 paise at 64.24 a dollar on sustained month-end demand for the US currency from importers and banks.

Currency traders preferred to stay on the sidelines and avoided taking any long positions ahead of a long weekend.

Subdued local equities along with modest amounts of capital outflows too weighed on forex trade as foreign funds sold shares worth net Rs 181.71 crore yesterday as per the provisional data from exchanges.

Forex market will be closed on Monday on account of 'Maharashtra Day'.

Indian equities witnessed a sell-off for the second straight day as cautious investors booked profits ahead of a long weekend even as key Asian bourses were broadly weaker.

The flagship Sensex dropped 111.34 points to end at 29,918.40, while Nifty shed 38.10 points to 9,304.05.

The rupee resumed firmly higher at 64.10 against Thursday's closing of 64.16 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market and strengthened further to 64.06 on bouts of dollar selling amid firm domestic equities.

But soon turned weaker moving in line with local stocks and touched a low of 64.38 in late afternoon deals before concluding at 64.24, showing a fall of 8 paise, or 0.12 per cent.

For the week, however, the home currency ended higher by 37 paise.

The RBI, meanwhile, fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 64.2170 and for the euro at 69.8809.

In worldwide trade, the greenback traded little changed against major rivals ahead of US preliminary Q1 GDP data and also firm euro.

The dollar index, which tracks the US currency against a basket of six major rivals, was down 0.24 percent at 98.76.

In cross-currency trade, the Indian unit drifted further against the pound sterling to end at 83.13 from 82.75 per pound and dropped against the euro to 70.23 compared to 69.92 earlier.

The local currency also fell back against the Japanese Yen to settle at 57.69 per 100 yens from 57.61 yesterday.

In the forward market today, premium for dollar continued to fall owing to sustained receivings from exporters.

The benchmark six-month premium for September edged lower to 133.5-135.5 paise from 135-137 paise and the far-forward March 2018 also moved down to 292.5-294.5 paise from 295-297 paise on Thursday.

On the international commodity front, crude prices rebounded from one-month low on lower level buying ahead of a May OPEC meeting and also helped by a weaker dollar amid signs that non-OPEC member Russia was fully compliant with output limits agreed among major producers late last year.

The benchmark Brent crude futures were trading up 33 cents at $ 51.77 a barrel in early Asian trade.