Rupee falls further to 55.41 against dollar

The rupee, which ended at 55.11 against the dollar on Monday, fell further to close at 55.41 against the dollar today amidst rising importer demand and a weak euro.

Traders attributed the extreme fluctuation to dollar demand by a private refiner and weakness in the euro.

The rupee resumed trading at 54.97 per dollar against the previous close of 55.11 at the interbank foreign exchange market. It touched a high of 54.80 on the back of an early rally in equities, but later fell back to a low of 55.42 before closing at 55.41 a dollar, showing an overnight loss of 30 paise, or 0.54 per cent.

This is rupee's lowest level over more than six months since it closed at 55.45 on 27 November 2012.

The benchmark BSE Sensex also dipped by over 112 points, or 0.56 per cent despite a Rs649-crore ($122.6 million) infusion by foreign financial institutions.

The dollar index was also up 0.35 per cent, ahead of tomorrow's US Federal Reserve meeting.

The premium for the forward dollar closed steady. The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in October ended at its overnight level of 155-157 paise while far-forward contracts maturing in April moved up to 319-321 paise from 315-1/2-317-1/2 paise.

The Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate for the US dollar at 55.0395 and for the euro at 70.9269.