COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Corporate covering pushes rupee down 3 paise, Rs 42.51/53

The Indian rupee ended weak against the American greenback in a volatile market on hectic corporate dollar buying and import covering by market participants at the interbank foreign exchange market today.

The spot market was quite volatile and there was heavy interbank demand for dollars, dealers said and added that the rupee came under pressure due to hectic corporate covering. However, the forward premiums remained more-or-less steady and witnessed limited activity.

State Bank of India participated in the market but with limited activity, dealers said.

The rupee opened at Rs 42.49/52, fell down to Rs 42.54/56 around mid-day, but it partially recovered on some exporters selling in the late afternoon to close at Rs 42.51/53, loosing by about three paise against the previous close of Rs 42.49/51.

The rupee witnessed five paise movement during the day.

Leading forex dealers said the marginal recovery by Japanese yen against dollar and the political developments in Japan did not have any impact on the market today.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate for the US dollar at Rs 42.53, four paise lower than the previous rate of Rs 42.49 per US unit.

On an annualised basis, forward dollar premium for one month closed at 4.79 per cent (4.76), for three months at 6.48 (6.48) per cent, for sixth months at 7.55 (7.51) per cent while the one year premia closed at 8.48 (8.51) per cent.

Monthly forward premiums in paise were closed for July at 0-1.00, August 17-20, September 40-43, October 70-73, November 100-104, December 131-134, January 162-166, February 192-195 and March at 228-232 paise premium.

In the overseas market, the Japanese yen recovered slightly against US dollar, while the deutsche mark and pound did not witness much activity.

The Indian unit opened at 70.16 against pound sterling and closed at 70.23 from the previous close of Rs 69.80, the currency closed at Rs 23.83 against deutsche mark against the previous close of Rs 23.72 and it finished at Rs 30.27 against Japanese yen from Thursday's close of Rs 29.97.

UNI