Mumbai: The rupee on Friday staged a recovery after two days of fall and ended 8 paise higher at 66.79 against the US currency on account of heavy dollar unwinding by exporters ahead of an extended weekend.
Besides, a suspected RBI intervention largely supported the local currency, says a forex dealer.
Moreover, speculative traders avoiding taking long positions ahead of the next week's US Fed meeting too weighed on trade.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit commenced on a bearish note at 66.90 following the month-end demand for the American currency from importers and banks.
However, overcoming the highly volatile momentum, the local currency quickly shrugged off the drifting trend and traded rang-bound before making a strong recovery to hit a fresh intra-day high of 66.76 in late afternoon deals.
State-run lenders sold the greenback on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India.
It finally settled at 66.79, revealing a smart gain of 8 paise, or 0.12 per cent.
In worldwide trade, the US dollar traded a bit soft against all major emerging market currencies ahead of key macro data outcome alongside the important third-quarter US
GDP figures.
The overnight new home sales for September in the US came in at their second highest level since the global financial crisis, raising prospect of imminent Fed rate hike this year.
The dollar Index, which measures its broader strength against a basket of currencies, was down 0.14 per cent at 98.79 in the afternoon trade.
The RBI on Friday fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 66.8566 and euro at 72.9071.
In cross-currency trades, the rupee recouped sharply against the pound sterling to close at 80.99 from 81.55 and and recovered against the euro to finish at 72.94 from 73.03 earlier.
It also strengthened against the Japanese yen to end at 63.43 from 63.76 per 100 yens on Thursday.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) remained net sellers in equities and sold shares worth a net Rs 469.93 crore on Thursday, as per provisional data from stock exchanges.
Meanwhile, domestic bourses continued their recovery momentum on the back of good buying in frontline heavy weights alongside some short-covering in Tata group stocks which were hammered recently reacting to Cyrus Mistry's sudden ouster as
Chairman.
The flagship BSE index firmed up 25.61 points to end at 27,941.51, while broader Nifty rose 22.75 points at 8,638. In the forward market, premium for dollar showed an easy trend due to lack of market moving factors.
The benchmark six-month premium for March inched up to 143-145 paise as compared to 142-144 paise, while the forward-September 2017 contract edged lower to 318-319 paise from 318-320 paise on Thursday.
Crude prices fell back after brief recovery to trade marginally lower as doubts linger about whether OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers will be able to agree on an output cut big enough to curb a global glut.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will kick off a two-day meeting of experts on Friday.
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