The Indian rupee dropped to its lowest level in more than a week on Monday, pushed around by choppy shares and a strong dollar, but remained within the range it has traded for the past month. The partially convertible rupee closed at 48.74/75 per dollar, off a low of 48.80, its weakest since Sept. 4, but still 0.5 percent weaker than Friday's close of 48.48/49.
"The rupee dropped only because the stocks played topsy-turvy and the dollar also gained versus some majors," said Naveen Raghuvanshi, an associate vice president, with Development Credit Bank. "There is no inherent weakness or strength seen in the rupee at the moment. It will continue to trade in the range of 48 to 49, unless the cross currencies move up or down against the dollar significantly and/or the stocks break out in either direction. Markets globally are very rangebound now."
One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoting at 48.84/94, marginally weaker than the onshore spot closing rate. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX both closed at 48.7850 each, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about an average $2.1 billion.