Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Monday washed out its initial gains against the American currency and finished two paise down at over one-month low level of 60.30 on fag-end dollar demand from banks and importers.
The rupee resumed higher at 60.25 per dollar as against the last weekend's level of 60.28 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market. It firmed up further to 60.1650 per dollar on initial selling of dollars by banks and exporters in view of persistent foreign capital inflows.
However, it washed out its initial gains on fresh dollar demand from banks and importers on the back of higher dollar in overseas market and ended at 60.30 per dollar, showing a loss of two paise or 0.03 percent from its close on Friday.
It moved in a range of 60.1650 per dollar and 60.3250 per dollar during the day.
The rupee had dipped 10 paise on last Friday and 6 paise on Thursday. On Wednesday, it had closed flat at 60.12.
Today's closing of 60.30 is the lowest since the rupee ended at 60.39 on June 18.
Pramit Brahmbhatt, Veracity Group CEO said, "Rupee continued to trade range bound to slightly weak but is expected to gain in coming days taking cues from the positive equity market. On closing basis, the dollar index is trading at five-week high at 80.56."
Meanwhile, the Indian benchmark Sensex rose by 73.61 points, or 0.29 percent, to end at 25,715.17.
The dollar index was up by 0.04 percent against its major global rivals.
Meanwhile, the premium for forward dollar continued to rule weak on persistent receipts by exporters.
The benchmark six-month premium payable in December eased to 224.5-226.5 paise from 225.5-227.5 paise previously.
Far-forward contracts maturing in June, 2015 also softened to 469-471 paise from 469.5-471.5 paise.
The Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate for dollar at 60.1853 and for the euro at 81.4821.
The rupee remained firm against the pound at 102.99 from previous close of 103.03 while, regained to 81.52 per euro as against 81.55. It declined further to 61.11 per 100 Japanese yen from 59.49.
