Rupee firms up against soft dollar, up 5 paise at 66.68

The rupee today extended its gains for the second session by adding 5 paise to close at 66.68 against the US dollar on sustained selling of the American currency by banks and exporters.
Robust capital inflows alongside a slightly weaker greenback too reinforced the dominance of the home currency.
It briefly moved into negative zone in late morning deals before regaining its strength in a fairly range-bound forex market.
The local currency resumed higher at 66.68 as compared to overnight closing level of 66.73 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market and moved higher to 66.66 on continued dollar unwinding back by higher local equities.

But later lost momentum and fell back to hit a low of 66.77 due to fresh dollar demand from leading corporates and foreign banks before rebounding to end at 66.68, revealing a modest rise of 5 paise, or 0.07 per cent.
It had appreciated by a good 15 paise yesterday.

In worldwide trade, The American dollar traded weak against all major emerging currencies during the past Asian session after US inflation rose more than expected in September, prompting investors to trim bets on a December Fed rate hike.
The dollar index, which measures its broader strength against a basket of currencies, was marginally up at 97.90.

The RBI today fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 66.7145 and euro at 73.2125.
In cross-currency trades, the rupee declined further against the pound sterling to end at 81.96 from 81.90 and also retreated against the Japanese yen to finish at 64.50 from 64.19 per 100 yens on Tuesday.
However, it edged higher against the euro and settled at 73.19 as compared to 73.40 earlier.