All the pep-talks by the finance ministry mandarins failed to rescue the rupee, which closed at a fresh life-time low against the greenback to 59.68 as month-end dollar demand from oil importers and hefty FII outflows dragged down the rupee.Even suspected Reserve Bank intervention did nothing to check the currency slide as it approached nearly 60-mark.
At the Forex market, the domestic unit commenced lower at 59.55 a dollar as against last weekend's close of 59.27. It continued its downslide to a low of 59.83, before recovering some ground to settle at 59.68 — still showing a fall of 41 paise or 0.69 per cent. The rupee's previous all-time closing low was 59.57 on June 20 .
FIIs pulled out over $250 million from stocks on Monday, provisional data from the bourses showed. "Rupee closed weak taking cues from strong dollar and weak equities in India. Strong month end dollar demand from oil importers also weighed which pushed rupee again past 60 (futures) levels intra-day," said Pramit Brahmbhatt of Alpari Financial Services.
With the rupee coming near its all-time (intra-day) low of 59.97/98 levels, "PSU banks were seen selling dollars at the behest of the RBI helping the rupee to some extent", said forex head of a leading private bank.
