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Quiet, range-bound trading keeps rupee steady; Rs 42.41/42

The rupee, after moving in a narrow range, ended marginally higher by one paisa against the greenback on a quiet interbank foreign exchange market today.

Opening a bit higher at Rs 42.4200/4250, which itself was the low of the day, the rupee showed some signs of appreciation, moving up to the high of Rs 42.3900/3950 at noon, on good dollar off-loading by banks in view of the two-day bank strike on Thursday and Friday coupled with lower demand.

However, fresh dollar buying by banks, particularly by State Bank of India at that lower level, pushed the rupee slightly down from its intra-day high to close at Rs 42.41/42 as against Rs 42.42/43 of the previous close, gaining one paise.

Dealers said the rupee would have strengthened much more, but SBI's buying when it ruled beyond Rs 42.40 level restricted the rupee's gain.

Forward premia opened slightly higher on some paying pressure, later eased on good receiving and ended lower than the previous day. Near forward premia finished by 2-3 paise lower while far forwards eased by 4-5 paise. The sixth-month annualised and yearly premia ended lower at 7.07 per cent and 7.57 per cent respectively as against 7.28 and 7.77 per cent of the previous day.

Cash/spot ended at 1.00-1.50 paise premium while cash/tomorrow finished at 0.50-0.75 paise premium. The month-wise premium in paise were: March 26-28, April 54-57, May 76-79, June 103-106, July 127-130, August 154-157, September 182-185, October 210-213, November 239-242, December 269-272, January 293-303 and February 327-332.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India revised the reference rate for dollar four paise lower at Rs 42.40 as against Rs 42.44 of the previous day. In the cross currency, the rupee also strengthened against pound sterling, euro and Japanese yen.

Sterling ended at Rs 68.69 (Rs 69.27), euro at Rs 46.57 (Rs 47.42) and yen at Rs 34.71 (Rs 35.41).

In the domestic money market, the call rates opened higher at 9.00-9.30 per cent, and later eased to 8.75 per cent before closing at 8.80-9.00 per cent.

UNI

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