Rupee crawls to hold 3-week peak of 66.40

The rupee maintained its upmove for the fourth straight day in a highly volatile trade and appreciated by a modest two paise to settle at 66.40 against the greenback.

Lowering country's growth projections and a sharp fall in local stocks pressurised the home currency to give up early strong gains.

Tracking strong dollar movement, the home currency opened a tad lower at 66.48 against Thursday's three-week high of 66.42 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market and depreciated further to 66.52 due to some dollar demand.

But, later the rupee staged a smart rebound and accelerated gains to hit a session's intra-day high of 66.3150 before ending at 66.40, showing a marginal gain of 2 paise, or 0.03%.

It has gained 69 paise in four trading sessions.

The government lowered its economic growth forecast for 2015-16 to 7-7.5% from 8.1-8.5%, but said budget deficit target will be met as higher tax revenues offset a shortfall in PSU stake sale.

However, Indian equities snapped a four-session rally and plummeted sharply, joining a global market sell-off as investors digested the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.

In worldwide trade, the bullish US dollar retreated marginally against its major peers after initial upmove, pulling back from a two-week high despite overnight robust macro data.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan surprised the market with extra stimulus measures, though kept monetary policy unchanged as expected.

The dollar index, which tracks the world's reserve currency against a basket of its peers, is down 0.28% at 98.92.

The stock market flagship index Sensex tumbled by 284 points to end at 25,519.22, while the broader Nifty plunged over 82 points to settle at 7,761.95.