Mumbai, May 2: The rupee today fell below the 53 mark intra-day before closing at nearly four-month low of 52.96/97, down by 23 paise against the US currency, due to firm dollar demand and fears of more capital outflows.
Strong dollar overseas and expectations of more capital outflows in the wake of uncertain local equities weighed on the rupee, a dealer said.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit touched a high of 52.55 in early trade on firm local stocks and dollar selling by exporters.
However, the rupee soon started losing and immediately fell to below 53-level of 53.03 on weakness in equities amid firm dollar overseas.
Dollar demand from importers also kept the rupee under pressure. It later ended at 52.96/97, a net fall of 0.44 per cent.
The BSE benchmark Sensex, which was trading in positive terrain till fag-end, closed down by about 17 points.
The dollar index, consisting of six major currencies, was up by nearly 0.5 per cent ahead of US private-employment data while New York crude oil was trading below USD 106 a barrel in European market today.
“The rupee weakened to over four months low on rising dollar index and equally negative global equity markets,” Alpari Financial Services (India) CEO Pramit Brahmbhatt said.
The rupee premium for the forward dollar continued to rule mixed on alternate bouts of buying and selling.
The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in October ended weak at 182-1/2-184-1/2 paise from 186-1/2-88-1/2 paise previously and maturing in April fell back at 324-326 paise from 327-329 paise.
The RBI fixed the reference rate for the US dollar at 52.9305 and for euro at 69.9425.
The rupee recovered against the pound sterling to end at 85.67/69 from Monday's close of 85.78/80 and also recouped against the euro to Rs 69.60/62 from 69.71/73 previously.
It, however, declined further against the Japanese yen to 65.95/97 per 100 yen from last close of 65.80/82.
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