COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Rupee down, up, down in quiet market; Rs 42.54 vs $

The rupee ended one paise lower against the greenback on a quiet interbank foreign exchange market today.

Opening lower at Rs 42.55/56, the rupee came under pressure due to some corporate dollar demand and further eased to Rs 42.5550/5650 level in the morning.

However, fresh dollar sales by banks and corporates at that higher level, helped the rupee to recover partially to close at Rs 42.54/5450 as against Rs 42.53/54 of the previous day.

Dealers said that market witnessed good activity in the morning and the Indian unit moved downwards on some dollar demand. But with scattered dollar sales later and lower demand for dollar, the rupee nearly recovered the morning loss.

State Bank of India was also seen quoting both ways, dealers added.

Forward premia, after moving slightly up in the morning on paying pressure, came down later on better receiving and closed about four paise lower. The annualised premia on first, third, sixth-month and yearly quoted marginally lower at 5.47, 6.76, 7.42 and 8.25 per cent respectively.

Cash/spot and cash/tomorrow ended at 1.00-1.25 paise and 0.25-0.50 paise premium respectively. The month-wise premia in paise were: December 3-5, January 21-24, February 40-44, March 71-74, April 101-104, May 130-134, June 160-165, July 192-197, August 226-231, September 260-265, October 293-298 and November 325-330.

In the overseas market, moderate activities took place and the volume was very thin in view of the year ending, dealers said.

Dollar remained almost steady against pound sterling, deutsche mark and yen. Rupee also ended nearly steady against sterling at Rs 71.57, Rs 25.56 for dm and Rs 36.80 for yen.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate for US dollar at Rs 42.55 against Rs 42.54 of the previous day. In the domestic money market, the call money rates continued to rule above the repo rate and closed steady at 9.00-9.10 per cent on account of advance tax outflows.

UNI

Business news