The Indian rupee fell on Monday as gold and crude oil importers bought dollars to meet payment obligations, with dealers also citing outflows related to a gas utility. Some dealers pegged the dollar outflows related to the gas utility at $150-$200 million. The partially convertible rupee closed at 54.14/15 per dollar, weaker than its close of 53.96/97 on Thursday. The pair moved in a range of 53.92 to 54.2450 during the session.
Indian financial markets were shut on Friday for a local holiday. Technical charts showed the rupee had an immediate support at the 54.30-35 range, around its previous resistance level of 54.34 on April 12. "There is heavy demand from gold importers after prices fell. The bias is towards rupee appreciation, but there seems to be a lot of dollar demand at current levels," said Sudarshan Bhat, head of forex trading at Corporation Bank. 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 54.1150 with a total traded volume of $5.5 billion.