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Rupee weakens by 4 paise, closes at 42.64/64

The rupee further weakened by four paise against the US greenback on heavy dollar demand by corporates and banks at the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market today.

The rupee opened slightly lower at 42.61/64, slid further to 42.64/65 in the morning on heavy dollar buying by banks and corporates while the dollar sales were moderate. The rupee which later moved upto 42.57/58 in the mid session on renewed dollar sales by banks, again eased on fresh dollar buying, closed at 42.64/64 against the previous close of 42.58/60.

The far forward premiums came down a bit while near forward premiums remained almost steady on good receiving and nominal import booking on near forward dollars, dealers said.

The six-month and annualised premiums were quoted lower at 8.40 per cent (8.55) and 9.18 per cent (9.48) respectively.

Nominal amount of import booking was conducted in near forward dollars, dealers said.

Cash/spot business was conducted between 0.25-0.50 paise and cash/tom was done between level to 0.25 paise. The month-wise premiums in paise were: July 4-6, August 32-34, September 62-65, October 94-97, November 128-131, December 159-162, January 196-200, February 230-235 and March 265-270.

The Reserve Bank of India has fixed the reference rate for US dollar at Rs 42.61 against Rs 42.59 the previous day.

In the overseas market, the pound sterling and deutsche mark remained steady against the dollar while the Japanese yen strengthened slightly. The rupee was lower against sterling, dm and yen and quoted for Rs 69.82 (69.69), for dm Rs 23.67 (23.54) and for yen Rs 30.23 (29.95).

UNI