Rupee recovers from life low, rebounds 33 paise to 68.46

After crashing to life-time lows yesterday, the rupee staged a spirited recovery to end higher by 33 paise at 68.46 against the US dollar today in line with a big relief rally in domestic equities.Propped up by heavy dollar selling intervention by the RBI, the Indian unit touched a fresh intra-day high of 68.35.This was the first gain posted by the rupee in the last four sessions.Overall forex sentiment, however, remained cautious due to rising crude prices and concerns over fiscal slippage.The rupee largely took cue from weak dollar overseas, despite month-end greenback demand from corporates and oil importers.The Indian currency had suffered its worst drubbing and crumbled to hit a fresh all-time low of 69.10 against the benchmark currency US dollar on Thursday before staging some recovery.The domestic unit had yesterday ended at a record closing low of 68.79, falling 18 paise against the US dollar due to multiple headwinds. The rupee’s previous all-time closing low was 68.73, touched on November 24, 2016.Today, at the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market, the home currency opened sharply higher at 68.70 against overnight close of 68.79 on fresh selling of the American currency by banks and exporters.Keeping the overall bullish trend, it touched a session high of 68.35 in late morning deals before concluding at 68.46, showing a steep rise of 33 paise, or 0.48 per cent.The RBI, meanwhile, fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 68.5753 and for the euro at 79.8491.The bond market also regained some lost ground and the 10-year benchmark bond yield slipped to 7.90 per cent against 7.94 per cent previously.Meanwhile, the benchamark Sensex surged by 385.84 points to end at 35,423.48, while the Nifty zoomed 125.20 points at 10,714.30.On the energy front, brent crude futures, an international benchmark