Rupee trims initial losses, still down by 8 paise

The rupee trimmed its initial losses, but was still down by 8 paise to 66.72 against the American currency in the late morning trade on month-end bouts of demand for dollars from importers.
The rupee resumed sharply lower at 66.90 per dollar as against last Wednesday's closing level of 66.64 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market here.
It hovered in the range of 66.90 and 66.68 before quoting at 66.64 at 1030 hrs.
Meanwhile, the dollar index was down 0.01 per cent at 96.31 against a basket of six currencies in the early trade.
In the overseas market, the US dollar mostly ruled stable against its major rivals, but edged up against the yen, after rebounding last week following a series of comments from US Federal Reserve officials who supported the case for more interest rate hikes than markets had anticipated.

At overseas, the dollar took a step back today in Asian

trade after the US Federal Reserve stopped short of signaling a near-term rate rise, while the yen gained on growing expectations the Bank of Japan won't deliver the stimulus investors are looking for this week.
The yen strengthened against the dollar and the euro in Asian trade Thursday, as jittery investors looked to the Bank of Japan's policy decision Friday.
There are growing expectations that the BOJ will announce more monetary easing when its policy setters wrap up their two-day meeting Friday, to help support the government's large-scale stimulus measures.

In the forward market, premium for dollar moved down further on sustained receivings from exporters.
The benchmark six-month premium for December moved down further to 167-169 paise from 170-172 paise yesterday and forward June 2017 contract also declined further to 366-368 paise from 367.5-369.5 paise.
Oil prices edged up in Asia today after slumping for five-straight sessions to a three-month low after a surprise jump in US stockpiles built on increasing worries about a global supply glut.
US Benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up eight cents to USD 42.00 a barrel while North Sea Brent was up six cents at USD 43.53.

The benchmark Sensex rose by 184.29 points or 0.66 per cent to close at 28,208.62 today.