Rupee snaps three-day rise, ends 6 paise down against USD at 60.67

Mumbai: Breaking its three-session string of gains, the Indian rupee on August 21 retreated from three-week highs and ended six paise down at 60.67 against the greenback on importer demand for US currency, amid a firm dollar overseas. However, a marginal recovery in local equities and continued capital inflows restricted the rupee fall.

On August 20, the dollar rallied against its key rivals after the Federal Reserve Released meeting minutes suggesting the pace of labour market gains is getting quicker and improvement in job market might force the Fed to hike key lending rates. The market is now looking for the outcome of the Friday's Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen's speech at the Jackson Hole economic conference. The dollar index was trading up by 0.009 per cent against its major global rivals.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit resumed lower at 60.71 a dollar from previous close of 60.61, nearly a three-week high. It moved side-ways in a range of 60.61 and 60.7950 before settling at 60.67, a fall of six paise or 0.10 per cent. In straight three sessions, it gained 60 paise or 0.98 per cent. Pramit Brahmbhatt, Veracity Group, CEO said: "Rupee took a break today and closed weak taking cues from strong dollar as it continues to trade positively for the fourth consecutive day on the outcome of minutes of Federal Reserve's July meeting. "Also the dollar demand from oil importers and corporates forced the rupee to depreciate. The trading range for the spot rupee is expected to be within 60.20 to 61.00."

Meanwhile, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex on August 21 recovered mostly half of its overnight losses to end up by 45.82 points, or 0.17 per cent. FIIs bought shares worth Rs 251.036 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.