Rupee closes at 55.39

Mumbai, May 22: The Indian

touched an all-time low of 55.47 against the American

before recovering to close at 55.39 today.

Earlier, the rupee resumed higher at 54.60 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market as against the last closing level of 55.03 per dollar. However, it failed to maintain early gains and declined to all-time low of 55.47 per dollar in late afternoon trade.

As the rupee had plunged to 55.04 against the American currency yesterday, the Reserve Bank imposed restrictions of USD 100 million on "position limit" for forward contracts by banks.

"The position limit for the trading member...bank in the exchanges for trading Currency Futures and Options shall be USD 100 million or 15 per cent of the outstanding open interest, whichever is lower," RBI said in a notification.

It also advised the banks dealing in foreign currency to bring down their trading limits by June-end. Meanwhile, in New York market, the euro gained ground yesterday, after floating between positive and negative territory, rising from its lowest level against the dollar since January.

Analysts warned, however, that more pressure may be in store due to continued uncertainty over Greece's fate within the euro-zone and jitters over the region's banking system.

PTI