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Heavy $-covering pushes rupee down; Rs 42.46/47

The rupee ended marginally lower against the greenback on heavy dollar covering by corporates at an active interbank foreign exchange market today.

Opening slightly lower at Rs 42.45/4550, the rupee came under some pressure as corporates and banks were covering their dollar position because of a longer spot date due to the holiday on Monday in New York.

The rupee ended lower at Rs 42.46/47 against Rs 42.4350/4450 of the previous day, losing its value by 2.5 paise. Dealers attributed the marginal depreciation of the rupee to the four-day spot rate.

Forward market also witnessed good activity today. Near forwards premia eased marginally while far-forwards closed slightly higher by 2-3 paise because of paying pressure. Good import covering in far-forwards were reported, dealers said.

Cash/spot ended higher at 3.25-3.75 paise, while cash/tomorrow finished at 0.50-0.75 paise premia. The month-wise premia in paise were: February 7-8, March 31-33, April 58-60, May 81-83, June 109-112, July 135-138, August 163-165, September 192-195, October 219-222, November 248-251, December 277-280 and January 305-308.

The sixth-month annualised and yearly premia ended a bit higher at 7.15 and 7.58 per cent respectively.

meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India revised the reference rate for US dollar two paise higher at Rs 42.46 against previous day's rate of Rs 42.44.

In the cross currency segment, the rupee rose against pound sterling and eased against Japanese yen while it remained nearly steady against the euro. Sterling ended at Rs 68.91 (Rs 69.29), yen at Rs 37.33 (Rs 36.77) and euro at Rs 48.05 (Rs 48.04).

In the domestic money market, the call rates ruled between 8.90-9.40 per cent before closing higher at 9.10-9.30 per cent due to active covering by participants ahead of the reporting Friday.

UNI

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