COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Month-end covering by corporates pushes rupee to Rs 42.33/34 vs $

After a long spell of stability, the Indian rupee declined sharply by eight paise against the greenback due to month-end dollar covering by corporates as well as State Bank of India at the interbank foreign exchange market today.

The rupee opened at Rs 42.25/27 per dollar, higher from the previous close of Rs 42.2450-2550, then gradually came down to Rs 42.33/34 and remained at that level till the close, dealers said.

Basically, there was a month-end demand for dollars, dealers said and added that the rupee would have seen today's level yesterday. The rupee has declined by about eight paise at Rs 42.33/34 as against the previous close. The forward premia also came down marginally.

Cash-spot business was done between 1.50-2.00 paise premium and cash-tomorrow at 0.25-0.50 paise premium.

Monthly forward premia in paise were November 16-18, December 39.42, January 67-72, February 94-99, March 127-132, April 156-161, May 186-192, June 218-223, July 249-253, August 279-283, September 302-312 and October 336-342 paise premium.

The half-yearly annualised premia in percentage closed at 7.65 per cent and the one-yearly annualised premia at 8.05 per cent.

Elsewhere, the Reserve Bank of India has fixed the reference rate at Rs 42.29 per dollar.

According to forex dealers, the US dollar continued to weaken against all the major European currencies.

The greenback also reported a fresh decline against the Japanese yen, they said.

In the local market, the rupee eased against all the three major currencies -- pound, mark and yen. The Indian unit dropped by ten paise to Rs 70.87 against the British pound while it fell by four paise to 25.68 against deutsche mark from the previous close of Rs 25.64.

The rupee declined sharply by 27 paise to Rs 36.27 against the Japanese yen from yesterday's close of Rs 36.

UNI