Rupee breaks losing run, gains 10 paise to 66.52

Snapping its three-session losing momentum, the rupee today recouped by 10 paise to 66.52 on feg-end selling of dollars by banks and exporters in view of weakness in American currency in the overseas market and a strong bounce back by domestic equities.

Persistent foreign capital inflows into equity market also boosted the rupee value against the dollar, a forex dealer said.

Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth a net Rs 222.34 crore (Rs 2.22 billion) on Monday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

The rupee resumed lower at 66.72 per dollar against Monday's closing of 66.62 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market and dropped further to 66.8475 on initial month-end dollar demand from importers.

But, it recovered immediately to 66.48 on fag-end selling of dollars by banks and exporters before ending at 66.52, showing a gain of 10 paise or 0.15 per cent.

It had dropped by 40 paise or 0.60 per cent in previous three trading days.

The dollar index was down 0.23 per cent against a basket of six currencies in the late afternoon trade.

The RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 66.7330 and euro at 75.1814.

In cross-currency trades, the rupee continued to fall against the pound sterling to finish at 96.83 from 96.51 on Monday.

It also dropped further against the euro to 75.06 from 74.99 per euro previously.

The domestic currency also moved down against the yen to 59.97 per 100 yens from 59.94.