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Rupee fails to sustain initial appreciation

The Indian rupee could not sustain an appreciation in the initial stages against the US dollar on renewed demand from the commercial banks and the State Bank of India at the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market here today.

The dollar opened below Rs 42.00 mark and was quoted at Rs 41.95. It gradually fell further to Rs 41.86/89 in the intra-day transaction. During the afternoon session commercial banks entered the market and purchased good amount of dollar which appreciated the US greenback to Rs 42.05/08. At this stage the SBI bought dollar and took Indian currency to day's low of Rs 42.18/20 and remained at the same level till day's close, leading dealers said.

Hectic activity was witnessed in the overseas market as pound sterling opened at Rs 69.89 and closed at Rs 70.48, Deutsch Mark opened at Rs 23.50 and finished at Rs 23.65, Japanese yen resumed at Rs 30.78 and settled at Rs 30.89.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India has fixed the reference rate for US dollar at Rs 42.09 as against Rs 42.25 on last working day.

Due to high premia, the exporters booked their delivery for far forward mainly November and December, dealers said and added that the present 2.5 per cent premium is good for export booking, while nominal amount of import booking was conducted in near forward in merchant section.

The annualised premia also came down marginally, first month was quoted at 14.06 as against 15.15 points of yesterday, six month finished at 12.59 per cent from 12.33 of previous close and yearly premia settled at 11.02 as compared to yesterday's 11.26 points.

The cash-to-spot dollar for four-day was traded at 6.00-8.00 paise premium. The month-wise premium in paise are : 10-12 for June, 61-64 for July, 103-106 for August, 141-144 for September, 179-183 for October, 216-220 for November and 253-257 for December.

UNI