Rupee ends at three-week high of 64.93 against dollar

Mumbai: The rupee decisively broken an uninterrupted four-week downslide channel and rallied to end at a fresh three-week high of 64.93 against the beleaguered dollar on fresh bouts of dollar selling amid record-setting domestic equities.

Showing a stellar run throughout the trading week, the home currency garnered a solid 45 paise against the greenback. This is the highest closing for the local unit since September 21.

The Indian rupee had lost a whopping 160 paise, or 2.51 per cent in the last four-week carnage. A combination of factors such as bullish macro economic situation and easing monetary policy environment amid favouring global factors predominantly kept forex market mood buoyant.

Extremely bearish dollar overseas undertone alongside continued unwinding of long-dollar positions created by speculative traders also played a key role. Uncertainty over the pace of Fed tightening also added some relief on plate for local currency after minutes released from the latest FOMC policy meeting highlighted a dovish tone and pointed to sustained low inflation as a concern for policymakers.

The release of major domestic macro-economic data sent out a positive signal about bottoming out in the economy after the recent phase of downtrend to hit a three-year low in the June quarter amid receding investor pessimism.

To enhance the government's reform credentials, the industrial production grew at a nine-month high of 4.3 per cent in August on account of robust performance of mining and power sectors coupled with higher capital goods output, while retail inflation came in at 3.28 per cent in September, unchanged from August.

The buoyancy reflects the country's attractiveness among global investors due to strong fundamentals allying growth concerns, a forex dealer commented. Extremely bearish dollar overseas undertone alongside continued unwinding of long-dollar positions created by speculative traders also played a key role.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market, the rupee opened a tad higher at 65.37 from last Friday's close of 65.38 on stray dollar selling amid renewed geopolitical risks.

It later staged a spectacular rally as the current sentiment and the bullish contrarian trading bias lifted the local unit to hit a high of 64.87 before ending at 64.93, showing a smart rise of 45 paise, or 0.69 per cent. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have embarked on their largest selling spree in local equity market in 2017 so far and offloaded USD 41.53 mln this week.

Meanwhile, the RBI fixed the reference rate for the USD at Rs 64.9301 and euro at Rs 76.8772 against preceding week's level of Rs 65.2276 and Rs 76.2641, respectively.