Rupee closer to 63-a-dollar mark; gold falls, stocks flat
12 Sep 2013
The rupee continued its firm trend on the interbank foreign exchange market for the fifth day yesterday, coming close to 63 a dollar level, rising 77 paise to 63.07 against the US currency during intra-day trading.
The Indian currency rose to a near three-week high as dealers cited dollar selling related to fund corporate fund inflows and closed at 63.38, up 0.72 per cent against Tuesday's close of 63.84 a dollar.
Rupee's firmness also mauled gold prices, which fell by Rs130 to Rs31,240 per 10 gm amidst reduced offtake and weak global trend.
Silver also fell further by Rs720 to Rs52,610 per kg on lack of buying support from industrial units and coin makers.
Gold, which has fallen more than 18 per cent this year, is also being hurt by expectations the US Federal Reserve will opt to taper its monetary stimulus programme after a meeting on 17-18 September.
Spot gold hit a low of $1,356.85 an ounce, its weakest since August 22, and stood at $1,366.61 by 0632 GMT, up $3.02 on the day.
Gold prices were buoyed by three successive bouts of quantitative easing by the US Fed.
Traders said besides reduced offtake at existing higher levels, weak trend in global markets mainly kept pressure on the prices of precious metals.
The sharp gains in the stock markets, with the BSE Sensex closing flat after earlier falling by over 200 points also helped the rupee.
Despite foreign fund buying in the stock market, profit-booking in select stocks had initially pulled the Sensex and Nifty by over 0.1 per cent.
The Sensex, however, ended down 40.57 points or 0.2 per cent at 19,956.52 and the Nifty ended down 6.9 points or 0.12 per cent at 5,903.65.
he rupee had settled at 63.84 against the dollar on Tuesday and was up 140 paise over the previous day's close as fears of US military strike on Syria eased and global oil prices showed a subdued trend.
Forex dealers also cited dollr selling related to possible dollar inflows towards Mylan Inc's $1.6 billion deal to acquire a unit of Strides Arcolab Ltd.
