Mumbai: After taking respite for a week, the rupee recovered from more than 7-month intra-day low of 61.93 and continued its downslide, depreciating by nine paise to end the truncated week at 61.44 against the Greenback following fresh dollar demand from importers and strong dollar overseas.
Sluggish local equities and continued capital outflows also weighed on the rupee while heavy dollar selling on the last day of the week restricted the rupee fall to some extent.
Forex market was closed on October 15 on account of voting for single-phase Assembly Elections in Maharashtra.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit resumed higher at 61.25 and touched a high of 60.93 on fresh selling of dollars by exporters and banks, in line with other Asian currencies helped by upbeat trade data from China.
The rupee also got support by lower CPI and WPI data for September.
However, demand for dollars from defence companies and importers weakened the rupee in the mid-week and it fell back to more than 7-month intra-trade low of 61.93 on Thursday.
The dollar index was strong against basket of six major global rivals, which pushed the rupee to log its biggest daily loss since September 15 on Thursday.
A widening trade deficit that hit a 18-month high in September was also among the factors that led to rupee depreciation.
However, the fall was arrested on the last day of the week on reports of RBI selling dollars in the spot market and some recovery in local equities.
Later, it settled the week at 61.44, still showing a fall of nine paise, or 0.15 per cent. Last week, it rose by 26 paise or 0.42 percent.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex closed the week down by 188.85 points or 0.72 percent, extending losses for the fourth week while FPIs/FIIs pulled out USD 378.18 million on the first three trading sessions of the week.
Veracity Group CEO Pramit Brahmbhatt said: "To end the week, rupee appreciated over half a per cent and posted its fifth weekly fall. The trading range for the spot rupee on Monday is expected to be within 61.00 to 62.00."
In the forward market, premium remained weak on sustained receipts by exporters.
The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in March moved down further to 210-212 paise from last weekend's level of 221-223 paise and far-forward contracts maturing in September 2015 also tumbled to 433-435 paise from 452-454 paise.
The RBI fixed the reference rate for the USD at 61.6165 and the euro at 78.8938 from previous weekend's close of 61.1624 and 77.6701, respectively.
The rupee strengthened against the pound sterling to 99.00 from 98.50 last weekend but plunged further to 78.76 per euro from 77.65.
It also remained bearish to end at 57.68 per 100 Japanese yen from 56.93.
