Rupee ends lower at 71.23/dollar

The Indian rupee erased all its morning gainsand ended near at day's low at 71.23 per dollar, as domestic equity marketserased most of its gains in the final hour of trading.

The rupee ended higher by 5 paise at 71.02against the US dollar on Friday as a sudden spike in Brent crude pricesfollowing missiles attack on an Iranian oil tanker weighed on investor sentiment,said.

The dollar-rupee October contract on the NSEwas at 71.15 in the previous session. Open interest declined 1.60% in theprevious session, said ICICI direct.

We expect the USD-INR to meet supply pressureat higher levels. Utilise upsides in the pair to initiate short positions, itadded.

Senior Research Analyst at Rudra Shares & Stock Brokers Manali Bhatia said, "Fundamentally, we see a stable outlook for the INR in an upcoming week due to mixed bag of data as Forex reserve reached to lifetime high of USD 437.83 billion, increased by USD 4.24 billion.

The back to back massive increase gives positive sentiment, but on another side weak IIP data, concern about GDP, fiscal deficit and regular FII's selling still provide pressure on Rupee. Meanwhile, recent trade talk between US-China shows positive outcomes which will weaken the dollar up to some extent. As a result, mild appreciation may happen in INR; which may end at 70.6-70.40, she added.