Rupee drops another 25 paise to 61.52 against dollar

The rupee fell for the second day amid volatility in the stock markets, dropping 25 paise to 61.52 against the dollar, on Monday, on persistent demand from importers and banks as the US currency strengthened overseas.

The rupee opened at 61.35 per dollar as against the previous close of 61.27 at the interbank foreign exchange market. It dropped further to 61.58 before ending at 61.52, a loss of 25 paise or 0.41 per cent.

"It was a mixed session as the rupee was seen weakening on sustained dollar demand from importers and banks amid volatility in equity markets. On the other hand, consistent buying by FIIs helped the rupee to restrict losses," said Abhishek Goenka, CEO of India Forex Advisors.

The 30-share S&P BSE Sensex edged up 11 points to 20,893.89 after a choppy session.

Foreign institutional investors bought a net Rs 1,752.98 crore of shares on Friday, according to provisional data on the stock exchanges.

Oil prices rose by 10 cents to USD 100.91 a barrel in Asian trade, on Monday, as dealers awaited long-delayed US economic data for clues about the health of the world's largest crude consumer, analysts said.

The US stimulus programme has been credited with fuelling a global equities rally for most of the year. The US central bank said in September that it would not wind down the programme if there was no broad improvement in the US economy.

"The dollar index, which measures the US currency's value against a basket of six major currencies, is trading slightly strong above yesterday's close, which further weakened the rupee," said Pramit Brahmbhatt, CEO of Alpari Financial Services (India). Forward dollar premiums moved up on fresh payments from banks and corporates.

The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in March edged up to 225-1/2-229 paise from Friday's close of 224-228 paise and far-forward contracts maturing in September rose to 446-449 paise from 443-448 paise.

The RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 61.4885 and for the euro at 84.1215.

The rupee remained weak at 99.35 against the pound from Friday's close of 99.21 and dropped further to 84.12 per euro from 83.82.

It eased against the Japanese yen to 62.68 per 100 yen from 62.67.