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Quiet market keeps rupee steady; Rs 42.34/35

Rupee value today:

Rs 42.34 vs US dollar

Rs 72.33 vs pound sterling

Rs 26.45 vs German DM

Rs 35.96 vs Japanese yen

The Indian rupee remained steady against the greenback on a quiet interbank foreign exchange market today.

The rupee opened steady at Rs 42.3450/3600, displayed a very narrow movement of two paise, the low being 42.36 in the morning and Rs 42.34 in the afternoon. Dealers said the moderate dollar demand in the market was met with scattered dollars sales keeping the rupee between Rs 42.34/36 level throughout the day.

State Bank of India did a nominal two-way business. The rupee ended steady at Rs 42.3450/3550.

Forward premia went down a bit with scattered receiving and lower paying pressure. Near forwards ruled lower by two paise while far forwards were down by three paise. The 3rd month, 6th month and yearly premiums were quoted marginally lower at 7.20 (7.43 per cent), 8.30 (8.47) per cent and 8.86 (8.87 per cent) respectively.

Cash/spot were quoted higher at 2.75/3.50 paise premia because of the four-day trading and being the reporting Friday today in the domestic money market. The month-wise premiums in paise were:

October 11-13, November 34-37, December 61-64, January 91-95, February 123-127, March 157-161, April 191-195, May 224-228, June 257-261 and July 292-295.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India has revised the reference rate for US dollar one paise lower at Rs 42.36 against Rs 42.37 of the previous day.

In the overseas market, the dollar continued its fall against all the major European and Asian currencies on heavy dumping of dollars by the hedge funds for the last two days, fearing further weakening of the US unit as propects for the US economy darkened, reports said. The US dollar weakened against pound sterling, deustche mark and Japanese yen.

The rupee strengthened marginally against sterling, DM and yen and was quoted for sterling at Rs 72.33 (73.00), for DM Rs 25.99 (26.45) and for yen at Rs 35.96 (37.05).

In the domestic money market, the call rates ruled easy on the reporting Friday. The rates opened lower at 5-6 per cent after ruling between 4-7 per cent most part of the day, closed at 5-6 per cent.

UNI