The rupee drifted lower against the dollar on the money market on Monday in the process of trading, dealer said.
In the first Asian trade, the dollar fell versus the yen, dragged lower by sliding Tokyo stocks and data showing Japan logged a much larger-than-expected trade surplus in April.
The greenback was down 0.5 percent at 109.720 yen, pulling back from a three-week high of 110.59 scaled on Friday. Data on Monday showed Japan's trade balance in April was 823.5 billion yen ($7.50 billion), against economists' forecasts for a 492.8 billion yen increase. Japan logged a trade surplus for the third consecutive month.
If a country's exports exceed its imports, as in Japan's recent case, there is in theory a high demand for its goods and therefore for its currency.
The dollar was trading against the Indian rupee at Rs 67.33, the US currency was at 4.0710 in terms of the Malaysian ringgit and the greenback was at 6.5492 versus the Chinese yuan.
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Open Bid Rs 105.40
Open Offer Rs 105.60
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Bid Rate Rs 104.85
Offer Rate Rs 104.86
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The dollar resumed trading at its Saturday's closing rate of Rs 105.80 and Rs 106.00 as its buying and selling rates, respectively. Because of insufficient supply, the dollar's rate ended higher at Rs 105.90 on buying counter whereas its selling counter witnessed no change at Rs 106.00, the currency dealers said.
On the contrary, the local currency stayed strong and registered appreciation against the British pound. The pound's buying and selling rates declined from the previous closing of Rs 152.50 and Rs 153.70 to Rs 152.20 and Rs 153.60, respectively, they added.
The dollar resumed trading at Rs 105.50 (buying) and Rs 106 (selling) against last rate of 105.60 (buying) and Rs 106.10 (selling). It did not observe further change in the last trading hours and closed at Rs 105.50 (buying) and Rs 106 (selling).
Pound Sterling opened at Rs 151.60 (buying) and Rs 152 (selling) against same last rate. It did not observe further change in the second session and closed at Rs 151.60 (buying) and Rs 152 (selling).