Rupee At 39.88 Against US Dollar

The rupee on On October 22 depreciated by 15 paise against the dollar to close at 39.88/89 on dollar buying by banks and on some weak Asian stock markets. In active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the local unit opened sharply lower at 39.85/87 per dollar from last Friday''s close of 39.73/74 per dollar.It later moved down further to settle the day at 39.88/89 a dollar. The rupee moved in a range of 39.83-39.95 per dollar. It continued to trade in line with the equity markets and tumbled to 39.95 as the BSE Sensex was down by over 388 points in early deals.

The benchmark index bounced from early lows and showed marginal gains of 54 points at close helping rupee to stage a moderate recovery, traders said. There was some dollar buying by oil refiners to meet their import requirements as crude oil prices remained high near $88 a barrel. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers on October 17 in equity markets. They pulled out $440.40 million on October 17 while they were also sellers on October 19 with more then $400 million as per provisional figures, weighing negatively on the rupee.