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Rupee moves in wide range but closes steady; Rs 43.10/12

The Indian rupee, after moving in a wide range of 19 paise, closed nearly steady against the US greenback on the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market today.

Opening higher at 43.03/08, the rupee firmed up to Rs 42.97 level, in the intra-day trading on good export covering and lower dollar demand following the yen's strengthening against the US dollar coupled with the finance minister's statement yesterday that the Reserve Bank of India will not allow any speculation in the market and the rupee would find its own level.

However, in the afternoon, on renewed dollar buying by corporates at the lower levels, the Indian unit again fell to 43.16 level before closing at 43.10/12.

Forward premiums came down moderately on good receiving and nominal import booking. Cancellation of already booked contract at higher levels also helped in lower ruling of premiums, dealers said. The 3rd month, 6th month and yearly annualised premiums were quoted lower at 7.88 per cent (8.56 per cent), 8.15 per cent (8.51), and 9.00 per cent (9.16 ) respectively.

The Reserve Bank of India posted the official quotes for the opening as Rs 43.02/12, highest Rs 42.94/97, lowest Rs 43.13/15 and closing as Rs 43.05/10.

Cash/spot business transactions were conducted between 3.25 paise and 4 paise premium while cash/tomorrow were done at 2.75/3.25 paise premium. The month-wise premiums in paise were: August 7-9, September 35-38, October 65-68, November 94-97, December 124-127, January 155-158, February 185-188, March 221-224, April 255-259 and May 292-297.

From last Thursday, the rupee continued to slide, and has lost by 65 paise from Rs 42.45/47 to Rs 43.10/12 against the American greenback due to political uncertainty coupled with the Asian currency crisis and slump in the stock markets.

Meanwhile, the RBI has fixed the reference rate for US dollar at Rs 43.08 against Rs 43.19 of the previous day.

In the overseas market, Japanese yen strengthened against US dollar, deutsche mark weakened while pound sterling remained steady. The rupee become a bit stronger against sterling and DM while slightly weakened against yen and quoted Rs 70.02 for sterling, Rs 24.08 for DM and Rs 29.72 for yen.

In the domestic money market, the call money interest rates opened at 6.0-6.50, ruled in the range of 5.50-6.00 per cent most part of the day before closing at 5.50-5.75 per cent despite being the reporting Friday, on good demand.

UNI