The Indian rupee fell on Friday, snapping four sessions of gains, as profit-booking hit global risk assets and as hopes of substantive policy reforms faded as a political deadlock continued in parliament. Dealers said bunched up dollar-demand was seen from oil importers after a two-day bank strike hit volumes on Wednesday and Thursday. Oil-refiners meet most of their dollar demand from state-run banks, which were most affected by the strikes.
"There are no definite signs that the rupee can strengthen further. The parliament logjam and the poor monsoon has kept the rupee on tenterhooks," said Satyajit Kanjilal, chief executive at Forexserve, a forex advisory firm. The partially convertible rupee closed at 55.4950/5050 per dollar as per the SBI closing rate, weaker than its close of 55.26/27 on Thursday. However, the rupee ended the week with gains of 0.4 percent.
The one-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at 55.78 while the three-month was at 56.43. 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 closed at around 55.48, with a total traded volume at $3.5 billion.