Rupee falls for 2nd session, slips 3 paise to 64.52

The rupee managed to pare its initial steep losses and closed with a marginal fall of 3 paise at 64.52 a dollar on sustained demand for the American currency from importers and banks.
Steady capital outflows amid a caution ahead of the release of RBI's minutes of its bi-monthly policy meeting largely weighed on forex trade.
Subdued local equities too impacted the trading pattern. The rupee opened sharply lower at 64.63 per dollar from Tuesday's closing of 64.49 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market.
Later, it tumbled to hit a fresh low of 64.67 mainly pressurised by strong dollar demand amid buoyant greenback overseas tends.

However, the rupee reclaimed most of its early losses towards the fag-end trade on the back of smooth dollar supply before settling at 64.52, a modest fall of 3 paise, or 0.05 per cent.
The RBI, meanwhile, fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 64.6025 and for the euro at 71.9413.

The domestic currency managed to sidestep early volatility following the MSCI decision to include China A- Shares in its global emerging market index amid capital outflows worries.
The MSCI decision will add 222 China A-share stocks starting in May 2018.
The rupee plunged to a fresh three-week low of 64.67 in morning trade.

Meanwhile, foreign funds remained net seller for the second straight day and offloaded equities worth Rs 312.84 crore yesterday, as per the provisional figures.
Domestic equity benchmarks remained volatile and largely struggled to establish a clear direction tracking weakness Asian cues amid profit-taking in key heavyweights.
While, Chinese stocks hit an 18-month high following MSCI's decision to include them in its global benchmark equity index for the first time.
Commodity-linked currencies worldwide hit hard by plunging oil prices.
Global crude crashed into a bear market territory on hardening concern over global supply glut.
On the global front, the greenback traded little changed against its major trading rivals.

The British pound wallowed near two-month lows on fading interest rate hike.
The dollar index, which tracks the US currency against a basket of six major rivals, was lower at 97.27.
In cross-currency trades, the rupee fell back against the pound sterling to finish at 82.00 from 81.69 per pound and retreated against the Euro to close at 71.94 from 71.88 earlier.
The local unit also drifted against the Japanese yen to conclude at 57.94 per 100 yens from 57.80 yesterday.
In forward market today, premium for dollar remained weak due to sustained receivings from exporters.
The benchmark six-month premium payable in November eased to 130.50-132.50 paise from 131-133 paise and the far forward May 2018 contract also edged down to 273-275 paise from 275-277 paise previously.

On the International commodity front, crude prices took a deep cut on reports that Libya - a member of OPEC exempt from the cartel's coordinated output cut deal - is producing at the highest level in four years.
So far this year, oil has lost 20 per cent in value, its worst performance for the first six months of the year since 1997.
The August Brent crude futures were down 22 cents at USD 45.80 a barrel in early Asian trade.