Rupee down eight paise at 63.61 against dollar at close of day

Falling for the third day in row, the rupee lost 8 paise to end the day at 63.61 against the dollar due to persistent capital outflows. Consistent demand for greenback from importers too weighed on the rupee negatively, forex dealers said.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit commenced remarkably lower at 63.80. With stock markets also looking sluggish, the local unit fell further to a low of 63.89. Some recovery in equities and dollar selling by exporters and some banks helped the rupee to rise 63.49 before settling at 63.61, a fall of 8 paise or 0.13%.

The rupee has declined by 132 paise or 2.12% in three days of losses. Meanwhile, stock index BSE Sensex, which was down by over 310 points in early trade, ended day's trade by 71.31 points or 0.27%.
Foreign portfolio investors had pulled out US $190.60 million on Tuesday, as per Sebi data.

The dollar index was up by 0.33% against a basket of six major global currencies. In forward market, the benchmark six-month premium payable in May ended at its overnight closing level of 202-204 paise. Forward contracts maturing in November 2015 ended at 406-408 paise as against 407-409 paise previously.

The Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate for dollar at 63.58 and for euro at 79.39. The rupee remained weak against the pound to end at 100.02 from 99.84 yesterday while recovered to 79.19 per euro from 79.47.
It also rebounded to 54.35 per 100 Japanese yen from 54.64.