The Indian rupee weakened on Friday, falling 1.3 percent for the week, extending its losing streak to a third successive week, hurt by concerns about a possible pullback in global fund flows and the country's external deficit. The rupee found support from the central bank's plan to ease hedging rules for exporters and importers, a move which is expected to increase supply of dollars.
"Exporter selling is lined up along 55.70-80 levels which will support the rupee. I don't see the rupee falling past 56," said Uday Bhatt, a senior dealer at UCO Bank. The rupee ended at 55.63/64 versus its close at 55.59/60 on Thursday, falling for a sixth successive session. It is also the rupee's longest weekly losing streak since late November.
In the offshore non-deliverable forwards, the one-month contract was at 55.98 while the three-month was at 56.51. 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 55.70 with a total traded volume of $5.9 billion.