COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Rupee loses one paise against dollar

The rupee, after moving narrowly in both ways, drifted slightly lower by one paise against the dollar in A quiet interbank foreign exchange market today.

Opening at previous closing level of Rs 42.45/47, the Indian unit moved up to Rs 42.40/42 against the dollar in the morning on better dollar sales by corporates and banks. But in the afternoon, with renewed dollar demands, the rupee slid to 42.52 level and later strengthened to close at 42.47/48 against the previous close of Rs 42.44/47.

Forward premia, fell moderately, with the sixth month and annualised premia quoting lower at 9.23 and 9.77 per cent respectively. Near forward premiums came down by 10 paise while those from October onwards came down by about 20 paise on cancellation of earlier booked contracts, and nominal import booking today, dealers said.

The Reserve Bank of India has fixed the reference rate for the US dollar three paise higher at Rs 42.46 against Rs 42.49 of the previous day.

Cash/spot and cash/tom business were conducted at lower premium of 0.75-1.25 paise and 0.25-0.50 paise respectively. The monthwise premiums in paise were July -- 17-20 paise, August -- 47-52 paise, September -- 79-84 paise, October -- 113-118 paise, November -- 148-152 paise, December -- 182-187 paise, January -- 218-223 paise, February -- 254-259 paise and March -- 295-300 paise.

The rupee strengthened a bit against pound sterling and yen while weakening against the deutsche mark. It quoted Rs 69.79 for the sterling, Rs 23.49 for the dm and Rs 30.21 for the yen. The dollar remained almost steady against the pound sterling and yen and weakened slightly against deutsche mark.

UNI