The rupee on Friday lost 19 paise against the dollar at 63.30 at close as initial gains were washed out on account of strong demand for the U.S. currency from oil companies even as stock markets were bullish.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament, however, said there was “no serious crisis” for the domestic currency as it was stabilising after a few days of “volatility”.
The rupee had plunged to 13-month low of 63.53 earlier this week amid chaos in global financial markets caused by volatility in Russian currency rouble.
The rupee had declined by a steep 132 paise in three days of losses till December 17 before it notched up a 50 paise gain on Thursday.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit breached the 62 level in early trade in tandem with gains in stock markets
The rupee, however, succumbed to selling pressure amid continued capital outflows and settled the day 63.30, a net fall of 19 paise from its previous close.
In the forward market, the benchmark six-month premium payable in May slipped to 196-198 paise from Thursday’s level of 197.5-199.5 paise.
Forward contracts maturing in November 2015 settled at 401-403 paise as against 402-404 paise previously.
The Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate for dollar at 63.06 and for euro at 77.45.
The rupee fell back against the pound to 98.91 from 98.79 previously. Against euro, it recovered to 77.64 from 77.79.
It also firmed up to 53.04 per 100 Japanese yen from 53.24 on Thursday.
