Rupee fails to hold onto gains, crashes to 65 versus dollar

The rupee failed to maintain its initial gains against the American currency and was quoting lower 22 paise at 65 per dollar on fresh dollar demand from banks and importers.

The rupee resumed higher at 64.72 as against Wednesday's closing level of 64.78 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market and firmed up to 64.63 on initial dollar selling by exporters on the back of recovery in the equity market.

But it failed to maintain early momentum, trading lower by 20 paise at 65 per dollar on fresh dollar demand from banks and importers.

It moved in a range of 64.63 and 64.99 during the morning trade.

In the overseas market, the dollar suffered from a broad-based weakness against rival currencies yesterday as investors are worried that China's devaluation of the yuan could delay an expected US interest rate hike.

Meanwhile, the Indian benchmark Sensex rose 147.70 points, or 0.54%, to 27,659.96.