Rupee breaches 67-mark, ends 10 paise lower at 66.97

The rupee continued its free fall against the US dollar for the fifth straight session today and touched the 67-level after a gap of two months, but closed 10 paise lower at 66.97 on sustained demand for the greenback from banks and importers amid fall in domestic equities.

Higher dollar in the overseas market coupled with foreign capital outflows also affected the market sentiment.

The rupee resumed lower at 66.95 as against the yesterday’s closing level of 66.87 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market and dropped further to 67.00 level after two months before ending at 66.97, showing a loss of 10 paise or 0.15 per cent.

The rupee has lost 41 paise or 0.62 per cent in the last five trading sessions.

The domestic currency had last touched 67-level on March 16 this year when it had slumped to 67.22.

It moved in a range of 66.86 and 67.00 per dollar during the day.

The dollar index was up by 0.16 per cent in the late global trade against a basket of six global currencies.

Meanwhile, the RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 66.9131 and euro at 75.4847.

In cross-currency trades, the rupee dropped further against the pound sterling to finish at 97.29 from 96.81 yesterday.

However, it recovered against the euro to 75.58 from 75.70.

The domestic currency declined against the yen to 61.10 per 100 yens from 61.07 previously.