Rupee continues slide for 5th day, falls 47 paise against dollar

The Indian rupee continued to slide against the US dollar for the fifth day in a row, closing down at a fresh two-month low,  amid bearish local equities and demand for the US currency from importers.

A firm dollar overseas also weighed on the rupee as the dollar index, consisting of six major global rivals, was up by 0.28 per cent.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange Market, the domestic currency resumed lower at 63.35 and moved in a range of 63.30 to 63.84 against the dollar before settling at 63.71, a fall of 47 paise or 0.74 per cent.

The rupee has plunged 209 paise, or 3.39 per cent, in five straight sessions. It is at the lowest level since closing at 63.84 on September 10.

"Rupee was seen depreciating against the US dollar due to persistent dollar strength, rising dollar demand from the domestic oil companies and debt market outflows. Also, the stock markets which ended the session on a negative note contributed to the weakness in the local currency," said Abhishek Goenka, CEO of India Forex Advisors.

The 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 209.05 points, or 1.02 per cent, to a one-month low, completing six days of losses. Overseas investors pumped in Rs 333.50 crore in stocks on Monday.

Mutual funds witness Rs 50,000 cr outflows in July

New Delhi: Investors pulled out a net amount of more than Rs 50,000 crore from various mutual fund schemes in July -- the highest outflow in five months.

The huge pull-out of funds during July followed a net withdrawal of Rs 48,403 crore in the preceding month, taking the total outflows for two consecutive months to close to Rs one lakh crore.

As per the latest data available with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the net outflow of Rs 50,067 crore during July was the highest withdrawal by investors in mutual fund (MF) schemes in a single month since March, when investors had redeemed Rs 1.08 lakh crore.

This has left the MFs' net mobilisation of funds from investors so far in the current fiscal (April-July) at about Rs 45,539 crore.

Mutual fund is an investment vehicle that is made up of a pool of funds collected from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets.

At gross level, mutual funds mobilised Rs 7.8 lakh crore in July, but also witnessed redemption worth Rs 8.27 lakh crore -- resulting into a net outflow of Rs 50,067 crore.

This has brought down the total assets under management of mutual funds to Rs 7.6 lakh crore as on July 31, from Rs 8.11 lakh crore in the previous month.

The BSE's benchmark Sensex plunged by 232 points, or 1.2 percent, during the period under review.

"During the financial year 2013-14 so far (April-July), mutual funds net mobilised Rs 45,539 crore as compared to Rs 1,33,976 crore mobilised in corresponding period of 2012-13," Sebi noted.

In the entire fiscal 2012-13, mutual funds had garnered Rs 76,539 crore from investors while a net amount of over Rs 22,000 crore moved out of the mutual funds' kitty during the preceding year.

PTI