Re hovering in consolidation phse

Mumbai The rupee consolidated in a narrow range and settled lower by four paise at 83.32 (provisional) against the US dollar on Monday, tracking a negative trend in domestic equities. Persistent foreign fund outflows also weighed on the local unit, forex traders said. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 83.31 and touched a low of 83.33 against the greenback. It finally settled at 83.32 (provisional) against the dollar, registering a fall of 4 paise from its previous close. On Friday, the rupee settled at 83.28 against the American currency. “India’s manufacturing and production data released Friday were short of forecasts. Inflation data will be released later in the day,” said Praveen Singh associate V-P (fundamental currencies and commodities), Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.

Singh further said that currency markets are range-bound ahead of crucial US CPI data to be released on Tuesday. “The USD-INR pair is still pretty range-bound. The pair is expected to trade between Rs 83 and Rs 83.70 with a slight positive bias,” he noted. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.08 per cent lower at 105.77. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.02 per cent to USD 81.45 per barrel. On the domestic equity market front, Sensex fell 325.58 points or 0.50 per cent to settle at 64,933.87 points.