MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India is suspected to have sold dollars around Rs 53.30 to shore up the local currency, five foreign exchange dealers told Reuters on Friday.
At 4:52 p.m. (1122 GMT), the rupee was at 53.11/12 to the dollar after touching the day's low of 53.36. It had ended at 53.07/08 on Thursday.
A lower-than-normal number of market participants on the last trading day of 2011 also kept up pressure on the rupee, although traders said the currency could recover a bit if exporters move to book year-end profits.
In the previous session, the rupee rebounded from a low of 53.51 on suspected RBI intervention.
"The rupee has already touched record lows and so exporters may look to cash-in at the year-end, while importers will try to hedge against further weakness," said a foreign exchange trader at a state-owned bank. "Therefore, a choppy market will be the theme of the day."
The rupee is down 16 per cent this year. It is also the worst performer among major Asian peers in 2011.
Sensex, which is among the worst performers this year, was up 0.5 per cent.
One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at 53.72, indicating more weakness was likely in the spot rate in the short-term.
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 were trading around 53.53, with the total volume at $633 million.
