Rupee ends 3 paise higher at 67.17 vs US dollar

The rupee today recovered from early losses against the American currency and ended marginally higher by 3 paise at 67.17 on mild dollar selling by banks and exporters.
The domestic currency largely shrugged off the high volatility in stocks and rebounded sharply towards the fag-end trade following bout of dollar selling by exporters and also aided by greenback's weakness against some currencies overseas, a forex dealer said.
Moreover, the ECB rate decision later in the day largely focused on trade.
The rupee resumed a tad lower at 67.22 as compared to Wednesday's closing value of 67.20 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market and dropped further to hit an intra-day low of 67.27 on sustained dollar demand.

However, the home unit staged a solid rebound towards the tail-end trade in the face of smooth dollar supply and managed to settle higher by 3 paise, or 0.04 per cent, at 67.17.
It had finished 10 paise lower yesterday.

The US dollar index, which hit a more than four-month high on Wednesday, was down by 0.10 percent at 97.06 in early trade.
The RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 67.2035 and euro at 74.1523.
In cross-currency trades, the rupee declined further against the pound sterling to finish at 88.51 as against 88.42 yesterday, but held virtually steady against the euro at 73.98.

Meanwhile, bourses had a volatile day after a brief
recovery on the back of fresh profit-taking as disappointing Q2 earnings results from index heavyweight Reliance Industries largely weighed on trade.
The benchmark BSE Sensex dropped 52.66 points to end at 28,077.18, while the broader Nifty was down 6.35 points to 8,693.05.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were modest buyers in yesterday's trade and bought shares worth a net Rs 7.30 crore.
In the forward market, premium for dollar firmed up on fresh paying pressure from corporates.
The benchmark six-month premium for March inched higher to 152.5-154.5 paise from 151-153 paise and the forward-September 2017 contract also rose to 328-330 paise from 325-327 paise yesterday.

Crude prices regained some lost ground after having witnessed a massive sell-off a day before during the European session on Friday following Russia's pledge to freeze oil output amid cautious stance due to speculation over OPEC's production output cap.
Brent crude was trading firmly higher at USD 51.50 a barrel.