Rupee skids from 30-month high, down by 5 paise at 63.53 against dollar

Ending its four-session rise, the rupee on Wednesday retreated from its multi-year high and ended marginally lower by 5 paise at 63.53 against the US currency on fresh bouts of dollar demand from importers and banks.

However, a stream of robust capital inflows from foreign investors and large corporates largely limited the fall.

In the last four-day surge, the Indian currency had strengthened by a whopping 67 paise against the dollar.

The rupee yesterday ended at a nearly 2-1/2 year high even as speculative traders turned little cautious, a dealer commented.

After a sluggish start to 2018, the US dollar staged a rebound against other major currencies in quiet trade, as investors turned their attention to the minutes of the latest Fed policy meeting and jobs data due later in the week.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market, the rupee opened lower at 63.55 from Tuesday's close of 63.48 amid firming dollar trend.

It later moved in a tight range of 63.58 and 63.45 most part of the day in the absence of any major trigger before finally settling at 63.53, revealing a small loss of 5 paise, or 0.08 per cent.

The RBI, meanwhile, fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 63.4833 and for the euro at 76.5418.

In the meantime, crude traded near its highest level since 2015 with protests in Iran stoking buying, having risen above USD 67 a barrel during the previous session.

Brent crude, the international benchmark is trading at USD 66.99 a barrel in early Asian trade.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback's value against a basket of six major currencies, was up at 91.76 in early trade.

In cross-currency trades, the rupee dropped further against the pound sterling to end at 86.15 per pound from 85.96 and remained weak against the Japanese yen to finish at 56.61 per 100 yens from 56.58 earlier.

The domestic unit, however, recovered against the euro to end at 76.32 compared to the 76.61 yesterday.

In forward market today, premium for dollar continued to fall owing to steady receiving from exporters.

The benchmark six-month premium payable in June moved down to 134-136 paise from 136-138 paise and the far forward December 2018 contract also edged down to 270-272 paise from 273-275 paise previously.