The rupee surrendered its morning gains and ended lower by 4 paise at the close, hitting 2-week low of 66.58 on fag-end dollar demand from banks and importers amid higher greenback in the global markets, despite a sharp recovery in domestic equities.
The domestic unit opened slightly higher at Rs 66.52 as against last Friday’s closing level of Rs 66.54 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market and firmed up further to 66.39 on initial selling of dollars by banks and exporters.
However, it washed out initial gains and fell to 66.5950 on fag-end dollar demand from banks and importers before concluding at 2-week closing low of 66.58, showing a loss of 4 paise or 0.06 per cent.
The rupee had last ended at 66.62 per dollar on April 25, 2016. It hovered in a range of 66.39 and 66.59 per dollar during the day.
Meanwhile, the dollar index was down by 0.06 per cent in the early morning trade while it recovered in the late afternoon trade to 0.09 per cent against a basket of six global currencies.
The RBI fixed the reference rate for the $ at 66.4379 and € at 75.8056.
In cross-currency trades, the rupee recovered against the pound sterling to finish at 96.09 from its last weekend’s level of 96.44.
It also firmed up to 75.81 against the € from 76.00.
The domestic currency also recouped against the yen to 61.44 per 100 yens from 62.22.