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The Indian rupee opened steady at Rs 41.79/80, touched the low of 41.83/85 level during the intraday trading when major market player State Bank of India stayed away from the market for some time. But as soon as SBI re-entered the market and started selling huge quantities of US dollars at 41.79/80 level, the rupee recovered and closed steady at that level.

The forward premiums today went up considerably, especially the far forwards, which were higher by about 40 paise as importers were booking heavily fearing further fall of the rupee in the coming days while exporters adopted a wait-and-watch attitude and preferred to stay away. Dealers said they probably thought the temporary steadiness of the rupee is because of the support of SBI and it might depreciate further in future.

The six-month annualised and the yearly premiums were quoted higher at 9.93 per cent and 9.97 per cent as against 9.16 and 9.20 per cent of the previous day.

Cash/spot business was conducted between 0.25 and 0.50 paisa premium while the cash/tom was done at level to 0.25 paisa. The monthwise premium were June 17-18 paise (12-14), July 50-55 (43-46), August 89-94 (76-79), September 124-129 (110-114), October 160-165 (146-149), November 195-200 (178-182), December 232-237 (213-217), January 272-277 (247-251), February 309-314 (280-284), March 345-349 (313-317), April 375-385 (343-348) and May 415-420 (373-378) paise.

The pound sterling, mark and yen remained almost steady against rupee and quoted Rs 68.23 per sterling, Rs 23.56 per DM and Rs 29.81 per 100 yen.

The Reserve Bank of India maintained its reference rate for the US dollar at Rs 41.80 today.

UNI