Odishatv Bureau
Mumbai: Shrugging off a steep fall in local equities, the rupee on Thursday snapped its five-session long losing spree and gained 14 paise to close at Rs 45.57/58 against the greenback, following a heavy dollar sale by exporters and some banks.

Forex dealers said that fresh sale of dollars by exporters and banks on the back of fall in dollar value in the New York market yesterday after Federal Reserve policy makers unanimously agreed to maintain low rates and their bond buying program, supported the rupee in early stages.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex ended the day down by about 285 points at 18,684.43 level.

In active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic currency opened strong at 45.58/59 per dollar from Tuesday`s eight-week low closing of 45.71/72.

Later, it moved in a range of 45.6750 and 45.50 before concluding the day at 45.57/58.

However, the US unit reversed its initial firm trend in European market today and the dollar index was quoting down by nearly 0.1 per cent against the six major currencies.

Meanwhile, global crude oil was trading below USD 87 a barrel in London today.

The rupee premium for the forward dollar ended further lower on sustained receiving by exporters. The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in June closed weak at 119-121 paise from 122-124 previously.

Far-forward contracts maturing in December also finished down at 242-244 paise from 244-246 paise on Tuesday.

The Reserve Bank of India has fixed the reference rate for the dollar at Rs 45.57 and the euro at Rs 62.46.

The rupee fell back to Rs 72.67/69 against the pound sterling from Tuesday`s close of Rs 72.17/19 and moved down further to Rs 62.55/57 per euro from Rs 62.26/28 previously.

It, however, recovered against the yen to Rs 54.96/98 per 100 yen from its last close of Rs 55.53/55.

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