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Dull trading keeps rupee low; down two paise, Rs 42.49/50

The Indian rupee declined by two paise against the greenback in quiet and dull trading at the interbank foreign exchange market today.

The Indian unit opened at Rs 42.51/53 per dollar and remained steady most part of the day. The major market player, State Bank of India has quoted the dollar at Rs 42.51/53 but neither made purchases nor sales, forex dealers said. The rupee ended at Rs 42.4900/5000 against last Friday's close of Rs 42.5150/ 5250.

There were no importers in the market as the market participants adopted a cautious approach, dealers said.

According to analysts at the ICICI Securities and Finance Limited, the rupee is unlikely to fall sharply in the immediate future. The Reserve Bank of India has effectively controlled speculative play in the currency markets, and the arbitrage between call money market.

Cash-spot business was done at 0.75 -1.00 paise premium and cash- tomorrow at 0.25-0.50 paise premium.

The RBI has fixed the reference at Rs 42.52 per US unit as against Friday's rate of Rs 42.53.

Monthly forward premia in percentage were September 6.17, October 6.57, November 7.05, December 7.17, January 7.35, February 7.65, March 7.92, April 8.12, May 8.24, June 8.31, July 8.39 and August 8.46 per cent.

Half-yearly premia closed at 7.75 per cent while the annualised one-year premia ended at 8.50 per cent.

The premiums in paise were quoted at September 1-3, October 26-29, November 51-54, December 80-83, January 106-110, February 136-140, March 167-171, April 201-206, May 234-239, June 267-272, July 297-304 and August 331-337 paise premium respectively.

In the cross-currency section, the rupee was traded between Rs 71.28 and Rs 71.50 against a British pound. It was quoted at Rs 25.13 and Rs 25.29 against deutsche mark. The rupee closed at Rs 31.90 against Japanese yen and closed at Rs 31.95.

UNI