The rupee drifted sharply by 20 paise to end at a fresh one-week low of 63.71 against the US currency following steady uptick in dollar demand from importers and banks amid surging crude prices.
The rupee resumed modestly higher at 63.48 compared to Monday’s close of 63.51 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market on fresh dollar selling by exporters and banks amid early gains in domestic stocks.
It gained further ground to hit an intra-day high of 63.43 in mid-mornings deals before succumbing to fresh dollar pressure.
After touching a low of 63.73 towards the tail-end session, the local unit ended the day near its lows of 63.71, a loss of 20 paise
The dollar weakened against the Japanese yen after the Bank of Japan trimmed its purchases of long-dated government bonds in market operations, stoking speculation the central bank could start to wind down its huge stimulus policy this year.
The yen rose as much as half a per cent to 112.50 yen to the dollar, rebounding from the two-week low of 113.40 per dollar it touched on Monday, before easing back to 112.81 yen by 0815 GMT, still up 0.3 per cent on the day.
Meanwhile, the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed higher by 13.4 points or 0.13 per cent at 10,637, while the benchmark BSE index ended up by 90.4 points or 0.26 per cent at 34,443.19.