The rupee erased its initial gains to end 10 paise weaker at 59.04 against the dollar due to month-end dollar buying by importers and poor performance of the domestic equity market.

The domestic unit had ended stronger on Wednesday at 58.94 per dollar.

On Thursday, the unit nudged up in the opening trade at 58.92 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market. It strengthened to 58.79 on dollar sales by foreign investors.

However, the rupee broke the rising momentum as the dollar demand from banks on behalf of oil importers and capital outflows from the domestic equity market weighed on the rupee.

BSE-benchmark Sensex slipped by 322 points (1.3 per cent) over its previous close to end at 24,234 points

This led the rupee to decline to 59.07 towards the end of the trading session. Intra-day, it moved 28 paise in a range of 58.79 and 59.07 per dollar.

Market investors will keenly watch for the monetary policy by the RBI next week. RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has hinted at a hawkish policy stance by saying that it will be targeted at inflation.

Call rates jump, bond yields dip

Amid high liquidity, the overnight call money rate (the rate at which banks borrow money from each other to overcome short-term liquidity mismatches) ended sharply higher at 9 per cent from 7.10 per cent.

The yield on the benchmark 8.33 per cent, maturing in 2023, softened back to Tuesday’s level at 8.67 per cent from the previous close of 8.70 per cent. The price of the security declined to Rs 101.01 from Rs 100.81. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

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