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Dull trading keeps rupee steady; Rs 42.53

The Indian rupee closed slightly higher against the American greenback in a lacklustre trading at the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market here today.

The currency opened at Rs 42.53/56, fell sharply to Rs 42.56/57 in the morning, immediately after the opening and recovered on dollar selling pressure in the afternoon before closing at Rs 42.5325-5425, dealers said.

There was some action in the forwards while spot market was very quiet, a senior dealer at the leading public sector bank said. Forwards, mainly the far farwards, rose moderately on the paying pressure from importers, they said.

Cash-spot business was done at 2.00-2.25 paise premium.

The Reserve Bank of India has fixed the reference rate at Rs 42.56 per dollar against Thursday's rate of Rs 42.53.

On an annualised basis, the monthly premiums in per cent for the first month closed at 4.67 (4.45). The third month premia ended lower at 6.12 (5.24), six months premium closed at 7.47 (7.18) and one year premia ended at 8.53 (8.31).

In the overseas market, good activity was witnessed between US dollar and Japanese yen while the dollar-mark and dollar-pound were relatively steady during the day, dealers said.

The rupee traded in the range of 69.71 and 69.67 against a British pound. The Indian unit was traded between 23.90 and 23.91 against deutsche mark while it was traded at 29.63 and 29.46 against Japanese yen.

UNI