The Indian rupee fell for a second successive session on Wednesday to near a record low, as oil importers ramped up demand for the greenback ahead of the end of the month, while global risk assets were hit by worries about Spain. Traders are looking ahead at gross domestic product data on Thursday, with India expected to say its economy grew at 6.1 percent in the January-March quarter, the slowest in almost three years.
"Unless the RBI keeps coming in with measures, the rupee will continue to remain under pressure. There are still a huge amount of open importer positions remaining," said Subramanian Sharma, director at Greenback Forex. The partially convertible rupee settled at 56.23/24 per dollar, which marked a record closing low, and was not far the all-time low of 56.40 hit on Thursday.
The rupee had closed at 55.67/68 close on Tuesday. The one-month non-deliverable forward rate was quoted at 56.68, while the three month was at 57.43. In the currency futures market, the most-traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange, the MCX-SX and the United Stock Exchange all ended around 56.54 on a total volume of $4.9 billion.