Rupee weakens 4 paise at 66.87 against rising dollar

The rupee turned weaker for the second straight day against the resurgent dollar, falling by 4 paise to end at 66.87 on steady demand for the American unit.
Buoyant dollar sentiment overseas against the backdrop of heavy capital outflows amid impending Fed rate hike fears predominantly impacted the rupee sentiment, a forex dealer said.
The domestic currency opened substantially lower at 66.92 from overnight closing level of 66.83 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market and largely confined to narrow range- bound trade.
It hovered between 66.85 and 66.93 throughout the session, showing little impetus to convincingly break the trading range in the absence of any market moving factors before ending at 66.87, showing a loss of 4 paise, or 0.06 per cent.

In worldwide trade, the greenback traded a tad higher against all major emerging market currencies ahead of key US macro data including the highly influential US durable goods orders.
The British Pound reversed initial downtrend to trade firmly higher after preliminary Q3 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures showed the UK economy grew better than expected, while the euro remained near the seven-month low.

The dollar Index, which measures its broader strength against a basket of currencies, was down 0.02 per cent at 98.57 in the afternoon trade.
The RBI today fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 66.8854 and euro at 72.9385.

In cross-currency trades, the rupee fell back against the pound sterling and closed at 81.90 from 81.55 and drifted further against the euro to settle at 73.05 from 72.92.
Meanwhile, domestic bourses continued their bull run for
the fourth consecutive session on Friday on growing optimism ahead of the annual budget next week, also supported by better than expected corporate earnings outcome.
Asian shares were mostly in the green, with the sight of the Dow Jones Industrial Average still above the historic 20,000 mark working its magic once again.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 20,000 points for the first time on Thursday on growing confidence that President Donald Trump will preside over a new era of US growth.

The benchmark Sensex jumped 174.32 points to end at 27,882.46, while broader Nifty rose 38.50 points to 8,641.25.
In the forward market, premium for dollar showed a modest weak trend in the absence of any market moving factors.
The benchmark six-month premium for June softened to 134.25-135.25 paise from 134-136 paise and the far-forward December 2017 contract also edged down to 276.25-278.25 paise from 277-279 paise on Wednesday.
Crude prices drifted modestly largely impacted by rising crude output from the United States, offsetting efforts by OPEC and other producers to cut supplies to prop up the market.