Rupee ends steady at 66.54 vs US dollar

In a range-bound trade, the rupee today ended marginally higher by 1 paisa to 66.54 against the US currency on mild selling of dollars by banks and exporters on the back of lower greenback overseas.
The rupee today opened slightly lower at Rs 66.57 as against yesterday's level of Rs 66.55 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market here and hovered in a restricted range of 66.62 and 66.5450 per dollar before ending at 66.54, showing a mere gain of 1 paisa or 0.02 per cent.
The dollar index was down 0.15 per cent against a basket of six global currencies in the late afternoon trade.

Meanwhile, the RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 66.5830 and euro at 75.9313.
In cross-currency trades, the rupee moved down against the pound sterling to finish at 96.44 from 96.20 yesterday.
However, it ended steady against the euro at 76.00.

The domestic currency dropped against the yen to 62.22 per 100 yens from 62.03.
Overseas, the US dollar slumped against its major rivals
in early Asian trade and was under pressure by dismal US payroll data last week, prompting investors to rule out the chance of a hike in US interest rates this month.
The dollar regained some momentum against the Japanese yen today, after Japanese government officials spoke up to try to rein in the currency's strength.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity Financial Services said, "The rupee opened with huge gain on back of weak US Economical data released during the previous week which helped the rupee to appreciate. Even the rupee opened above 67/USD. Then remained quite for most part of the day. Even it was no major move in equity market. Our bench mark index Nifty closed with a loss of 20 points at 8,201 levels. To end the day, the rupee closed with a gain of 28 paise at 66.97/USD.
Trading range for the spot USD/INR pair will be 66.80 to 67.30/USD.
In forward market, premium for dollar declined on sustained receivings from exporters.

The benchmark 6-month premium for November declined to 198.5-200.5 paise from the last weekend's level of 200-200.75 paise and far forward May 2017 contract also moved down to 390-392 paise from 392-393 paise.
Oil prices pushed higher today thanks to a softer dollar after last week's well-below-forecast US jobs report, but the gains were limited as producers increased their rig count as the commodity held around the key USD 50 level.
Meanwhile, the benchmark Sensex moved down by 66.58 points or 0.24 per cent to close at 26,777.45.