Rupee zooms to 1-week high of 64.44 against dollar

Mumbai: Stretching its strong recovery momentum for the third straight day, the rupee on Friday rose by 4 paise to a fresh one-week high of 64.44 against the US dollar on sustained selling of the American currency by exporters.

Despite bullish dollar sentiment overseas ahead of key US macro data release, the domestic unit showed abundant strength, largely helped by robust capital inflows into equity and debt markets.

However, stray dollar demand from importers and some caution by currency traders ahead of RBI's monetary policy meet next week restricted the rupee's upmove.

The local unit opened substantially higher at 64.35 from Thursday's close of 64.48 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market.

It largely moved in a tight range of 64.32 and 64.51 most part of the day owing to alternate bouts of demand and supply transactions of dollars before settling at 64.44, revealing a gain of 4 paise, 0.06 percent.

The rupee has appreciated by a whopping 22 paise in last three sessions. For the week, however it ended virtually steady.

The RBI, meanwhile, fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 64.4208 and for the euro at 72.2673.

Meanwhile, domestic bourses made a stellar rebound and conquered fresh historic highs as value buying re-emerged in pharma, realty, consumer durables, auto and power shares after a two-day consolidation phase.

The flagship Sensex jumped about 136 points to end at a new closing peak of 31,273.29 and Nifty rose over 37 points to 9,653.50.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 517.31 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.

In the meantime, the US dollar rebounded to trade near one-week high against major world rivals on encouraging data flow amid expectations for non-farm payrolls, which are due for release later today.

The dollar index, which tracks the US currency against a basket of six major rivals, was marginally up at 97.22.

In cross-currency trades, the rupee bounced back against the British pound to settle at 82.85 from 82.89 per pound and firmed up further against the euro to end at 72.26 as compared to 72.37 yesterday.

The rupee also rose sharply against the Japanese yen to finish at 57.78 per 100 yens from 58.02 earlier.

In forward market today, premium for dollar remained subdued owing to sustained receivings from exporters.

The benchmark six-month premium payable in November moved down to 146-147 paise from 147-149 paise and the far forward May 2018 contract also edged down to 295-296 paise from 296.5 -298.5 paise yesterday.

In the international commodity front, crude prices took a big hit, crumbling below the key psychological $50 a barrel mark on growing worries that US President Donald Trump's decision to abandon a climate pact could spark more crude drilling in the United States, worsening a global glut.

The Benchmark Brent crude futures were trading at $49.67 a barrel in early Asian trade.