Mumbai: The rupee broke its two-week of losing streak and appreciated by 18 paise to close at 60.10 against the American currency during the week under review following bullish local equities amid fresh dollar selling by exporters.
Continued capital inflows also aided the rupee recovery.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit commenced slightly better at 60.25 a dollar from last weekend's close of 60.28 and dropped to a low of 60.3250 on dollar demand from importers, mainly oil refiners, to meet their month-end requirements.
However, it later bounced back to breach 60-mark to a high of 59.98 on strong equities and fresh dollar offloading by exporters before settling the week at 60.10, exhibiting a rise of 18 paise or 0.30 percent.
In last two-weeks, it had plunged by 56 paise or 0.94 percent.
The Indian benchmark S&P BSE Sensex flared up by 485.19 points or 1.89 percent in the week while FIIs infused USD 302.96 million on the first four days of the week, as per Sebi data.
Pramit Brahmbhatt, Veracity Group CEO said,"Rupee continued to trade range bound this week, though it managed to appreciate on weekly basis taking cues from strong local equities which posted its new all time high. Rupee is likely to trade range bound as investors are trading cautiously and are waiting for the RBIs credit policy scheduled on 5th August, which will help them to judge the markets."
"Next week Rupee is expected to trade under pressure as dollar demand from oil importers will force rupee to depreciate. The rise in local equities with the help of FIIs may support rupee to fight against the mighty.
The trading range for the Spot USD/INR pair is expected to be within 59.60 to 60.50," he added.
"Recommended to be cautious and Buy USDINR (Futures) on dips with appropriate stop loss as overall Rupee is expected to depreciate. Pivot Point for the Pair is at 60.10 and below is the Support & Resistance levels," he further commented.
Forward dollar premiums continued its downslide on persistent receipts by exporters.
The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in December dropped to 217-219 paise from 225.5-227.5 paise last weekend and far-forward contracts maturing in June 2015 also declined to 466-468 paise from 469.5-471.5 paise.
The RBI fixed the reference rate for the USD at 60.1448 and the euro at 80.0173 from 60.33 and 81.5848 previous week end.
The rupee recovered against the pound Sterling to end the week at 102.05 from 103.03 preceding weekend and also bounced back to 58.98 per 100 Japanese yen from 59.49.
It shot up against the euro to settle at 80.80 from last weekend's close of 81.55.
