On Friday, the rupee had settled 29 paise higher at 73.32 against the dollar
- After opening higher at 73.36 against the American currency on Monday, the rupee had gained as much as 13 paise to touch an intraday high of 73.19 on increased selling of the dollar by exporters and banks amid easing crude prices, before reversing the gains.
- Heavy selling in domestic equities and a rise in crude oil prices to regain the $80 a barrel mark put pressure on the rupee.
- Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for crude oil, rose 45 cents to $80.23 a barrel by 2:30 pm. Nervousness over a worsening diplomatic crisis between Saudi Arabia and the West, just two weeks before US sanctions potentially choke off Iranian crude supplies, lifted the crude oil prices.
- Weakness in the stock markets, which took losses to a total of 3 per cent in three days, hurt the currency, say analysts.
- "An early advance in the rupee lost steam as domestic equity market gave away gains," said VK Sharma, head PCG and capital markets group, HDFC Securities.
- Unabated capital outflows by foreign funds and heavy selling in domestic equities dampened the sentiment, news agency Press Trust of India cited dealers as saying.
- "The near term forex market trend will depend on the mandates of state assembly election results as five Indian states will go to vote in November and December," Mr Sharma added.
- Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 618.26 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) had net sold shares worth Rs 2.14 crore on Friday as per provisional data.
- The rupee had settled 29 paise higher at 73.32 against the dollar on that day.
- Meanwhile, forex reserves came down by $5.14 billion to $394.5 billion for the week ended October 12, marking their steepest weekly fall since November 2011.
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