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Corporate demand for $ pushes rupee down; Rs 43.24

• Rs 43.24 vs $
• Rs 45.50 vs euro
• Rs 68.26 vs pound
• Rs 36.60 vs yen (100)

The Indian rupee ended marginally lower at Rs 43.24/25 against the greenback at the interbank foreign exchange market today.

Opening a bit lower at Rs 43.24/25, the rupee further eased to 43.26/2650 in the morning on corporate dollar demand. However, towards close, the rupee inched up to its opening level on fresh dollar sales by banks and closed at Rs 43.24/25, slightly lower from the previous day's close of Rs 43.2250/2350.

Dealers said the activity in the forex market was moderate and the slight easing of the rupee was just because of the demand and supply factor.

Forward premia continued its downtrend on receiving by some nationalised banks. Near forwards droped 2-3 paise while far forwards shed 5-6 paise. The sixth-month and yearly annualised premia finished lower at 4.22 per cent and 4.61 per cent respectively as compared to 4.34 per cent and 4.76 per cent.

Cash/spot premium ended at 1.50-1.75 paise while cash/tomorrow finished at 0.30-0.60 paise. The month-wise premia in paise were: July 1.5-2, August 15-18, September 30-32, October 42-45, November 58-61, December 75-78, January 93-95, February 106-109, March 23-26, April 141-143, May 161-163 and June 181-183.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India maintained its reference rate for US dollar at Rs 43.26.

The rupee declined against pound sterling, euro and Japanese yen. It ended against sterling at Rs 68.26 (68.00), euro at Rs 45.50 (45.22) and yen at Rs 36.60 (36.32).

At the domestic money market, the call rates ruled in a narrow range of 7.90-8.15 per cent during the day and closed at 7.95-8.00, nearly unchanged from the previous close of 7.90-8.05 per cent.

UNI

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