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Rupee recovers after import covering, ONGC's heavy $-buying; Rs 42.30/31

The rupee after dipping by seven paise in the morning on heavy dollar demand, closed one paise higher against the greenback on fresh dollar sales, in an active interbank foreign exchange market today.

Opening steady at Rs 42.31/32, the Indian unit drifted lower to touch the low of Rs 42.37/38 in the morning on heavy dollar buying by corporates and banks.

Forex dealers at foreign banks said that the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation was in the market purchasing huge amount of dollars in the morning. Market witnessed good import covering in the morning as yesterday was a holiday, another dealer said.

However, in the afternoon, the rupee staged a smart recovery on fresh dollar sales and lower demand. It regained its lost ground and closed by one paise higher at Rs 42.30/31, against Rs 42.31/32 of the previous day.

Forward premia which went up by 5/7 paise in the morning on heavy paying pressure, later came down on better receiving. The third month, sixth month and yearly annualised premia were quoted marginally up at 6.12 per cent, 7.38 per cent and 7.60 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India has revised the reference rate for US dollar six paise lower at Rs 42.35 against Rs 42.29 of the previous day.

Cash/spot business was conducted at 1-1.50 paise premium while cash/tomorrow was done between level rate to 0.25 paise premium.

The month-wise premia in paise were: November 9-11, December 28-32, January 55-59, February 82-86, March 102-106, April 142-146, May 172-177, June 201-206, July 230-235, August 258-263, September 286-291 and October 315-320.

In the domestic money market, the call money interest rates after ruling between 7.75 -8.10 per cent level during the day, closed slightly higher at 8-8.10 per cent, against the previous closing of 7.75-8.00 per cent.

In the overseas market, the pound sterling, deutsche mark and yen remained almost steady against US dollar. The rupee moved up slightly against DM and yen and ruled steady against sterling.

Sterling was quoted at Rs 70.09, DM at Rs 25.45 and yen at Rs 35.98.

UNI

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