Rupee declines for 3rd day, falls 13 paise to 61.65 vs dollar

The rupee fell for the third straight session today, ending 13 paise lower at 61.65 against the dollar on sustained demand from importers and banks as investors awaited US jobs data.

The rupee resumed lower at 61.71 per dollar against the previous close of 61.52 at the interbank foreign exchange market.

It hovered in a range of 61.54 to 61.83 before ending at 61.65 per dollar, a loss of 13 paise or 0.21 per cent. It has fallen 42 paise, or 0.69 per cent, in three sessions.

Sustained dollar demand from importers mainly affected the rupee value, a forex dealer said. However, good inflows from foreign funds in the equity market restricted the currency's fall.

"The Indian rupee was seen trading in a range-bound manner due to the absence of any major domestic news and ahead of US NFP (non-farm payrolls) data," said Abhishek Goenka, CEO of India Forex Advisors.

The 30-share S&P BSE Sensex ended 28.92 points lower at 20,864.97.

Foreign institutional investors bought a net Rs 1,031.79 crore of shares yesterday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

In New York, the dollar scored minor gains against rival currencies yesterday as traders awaited a round of US economic data, including September non-farm payrolls, previously delayed by the government shutdown.

Forward dollar premiums improved further on sustained payments from banks and corporates.

The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in March edged up to 225-1/2-230 paise from Monday's close of 225-1/2-229 paise and far-forward contracts maturing in September firmed up to 449-454 paise from 446-449 paise.

The RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 61.7800 and for the euro at 84.4855.

The rupee moved down further to 99.47 against the pound from Monday's close of 99.35 and remained weak to end at 84.28 per euro from 84.12.

It softened against the Japanese yen to 62.69 per 100 yen from 62.68.