Rupee falls 15 paise to end at 62.43/dollar

Falling for the first time in three days, the rupee today erased initial gains to end 15 paise lower at 62.43 against dollar on fag-end demand of the US currency from banks and importers, amid a tepid stock market.

The rupee resumed higher at 62.15 per dollar as against the last weekend's level of 62.28 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market. It firmed up further to 62.08 per dollar on selling of US currency by banks and exporters.

However, the rupee surrendered its initial gains and ended lower by 15 paise, or 0.24 per cent, to close at 62.43 on fag-end strong dollar buying from banks. Intra-day, the rupee moved in a range of 62.08-62.49 per dollar.

In the previous two days, the rupee gained 29 paise. Pramit Brahmbhatt, CEO, Alpari Financial Services (India) said: "Rupee traded weak taking cues from the local equities which traded sluggish. Expect the rupee to trade near 63.00 levels in coming days. The trading range for the spot USD-INR is expected to be within 62.00- 63.50."

In Hong Kong, the dollar fell against the yen and euro, with investors still digesting weaker-than-expected US jobs data for January and looking ahead to the new Federal Reserve head's testimony later this week for clues to the next move of the American central bank.

Meanwhile, the Indian equity benchmark Sensex ended lower by 42.29 points, or 0.21 per cent, to end at 20,334.27. Meanwhile, forward dollar premiums improved further on sustained payment pressure from banks and corporates.

The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in July edged up to 244-246 paise from last Friday level of 243-245 paise. Far forward contracts maturing in January firmed up to 488.5-490.5 paise from 486.5-488 paise.

The RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 62.1930 and for the euro at 84.7418.

The rupee remained weak to finish at 102.37 against the pound from last weekend's level of 101.77. It also dropped further to 85.10 per euro from 84.51.

However, the rupee fell back to 61.10 per 100 Japanese yen from its previous close of 61.00.