Rupee rallies for 3rd day, up 14 paise at 63.55 a dollar

The rupee continued its stellar run for the third straight session, rising by 14 paise to end at a fresh one-week high of 63.55 a dollar on sustained unwinding of American currency by exporters and corporates.
Also, steady foreign fund inflows predominantly supported the rupee upmove.
The Indian unit has gained a healthy 32 paise in the latest bout of 3-day rally.
The US dollar suffered a major setback -- extending its universal drop. Most Asian currencies were higher against the US dollar.
The domestic forex market undertone remained highly bullish despite subdued local equities even as global crude prices flared up to their highest levels since December 2014.

Oil breached the key USD 71 a barrel largely supported by OPEC-led supply curbs, a record-breaking run of declines in US crude inventories and a weaker US dollar.

Brent crude futures were trading higher at USD 70.97 a barrel in early Asian trading.
In the meantime, domestic bourses retreated from their historic highs, snapping an uninterrupted six-day bull run as investors booked profit ahead of a long weekend even as traders squared up positions in view of derivatives expiry.
Most major markets in Asia closed lower.
The flagship BSE-Sensex dropped over 111 points to end at 36,050.44 after scaling a new peak in early trade, while the broader Nifty shed 16 points to settle at 11,069.65.

The Indian unit resumed sharply higher at 63.52 from overnight close of 63.69 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market.
It gradually touched a high of 63.45 in mid-morning deals but later confined to a tight range for most part of the day before ending the day at 63.55, showing a steep rise of 14 paise, or 0.22 per cent.
For the week, the home currency gained a solid 29 paise after two-week slide.
The RBI meanwhile fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 63.4983 and for the euro at 79.0681.
The forex and money markets will remain closed tomorrow on the Republic Day.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback's value against a basket of six major currencies, was down at 88.95 in early trade.
In cross-currency trades, the rupee took a further hit against the pound sterling to end at 90.63 as compared to 89.87 and remained weak against the Japanese yen to finish at 58.32 per 100 yens from 58.18 earlier.
The home unit also drifted further against the euro to settle at 78.87 from 78.58 yesterday.
Elsewhere, the euro continued its spectacular rally ahead of ECB policy meeting later in the day.
In forward market today, premium for dollar displayed a steady trend owing to lack of market moving factors.

The benchmark six-month forward premium payable in June and the far-forward December 2018 contract were quoted at 119-121 paise and 256-258 paise, respectively.