Rupee down by 6 paise vs USD; Sensex pares losses

Press Trust of India  |  Mumbai 

The rupee pared some its earlier losses but was still down by 6 paise to 64.17 against the US currency in late morning session today amid lower stock markets.

Earlier, the rupee resumed lower at 64.19 as against yesterday's closing level of 64.11 at the (Forex) Market.


Month-end dollar demand from importers and banks weighed on the rupee, dealers said.

The volatility continued as the domestic unit hovered between 64.2450 and 64.18 during morning deals, it was quoting at 64.17 at 1030 hrs.

Overseas, the dipped against its major peers in early Asian trade, its mild bounce earlier petered out ahead of the second quarter US economic growth data due later in the session.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was down 0.06 percent at 93.86.

Meanwhile, the benchmark was trading lower 161.96 points or 0.50 per cent at 32,221.34 at 1140 hrs.

The broader of too fell below the 10,000 mark by dropping 36.20 points or 0.36 per cent to 9,984.35.

Losses in pharma stocks such as Dr Reddy's, Lupin, Sun Pharma and Cipla dragged the indices into the negative zone.

Dr Reddy's fell the most by 5.3 per cent among scrips on poor quarterly results announced yesterday.

ICICI Bank also fell 2.46 per cent as its first quarter results failed to enthuse investors.

Among other losers, Reliance Industries, Larsen and Toubro, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever and TCS fell up to 2 per cent.

The August derivative series started on lower note following disappointing quarterly earnings in some of corporates and weak trend in Asia after overnight fall in Wall Street, brokers said.

Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth a net Rs 1,869.92 crore yesterday, as per provisional data. Domestic institutional investors sold shares worth a net Rs 660.03 crore.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)