The Indian rupee dropped for a third straight session on Wednesday, its worst falling streak since late-January, as profit-taking in the domestic sharemarket by offshore investors hurt the local unit. Investors in India are looking forward to the conclusion of the elections in mid-May. An opinion poll this week forecast that the BJP and its allies would scrape a majority in the 543-seat lower house of parliament.
"There is position squaring happening in stock markets ahead of the election outcome and we will see position adjustments in the rupee too. The election result is the key factor for all markets now," said Ashtosh Raina, head of foreign exchange trading at HDFC Bank. The partially convertible rupee closed at 60.37/38 per dollar compared with 60.23/24 on Tuesday. The unit moved in a range of 60.20 to 60.43 during the session. In the offshore non-deliverable forwards, the one-month contract was at 60.75 while the three-month was at 61.53.