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Rupee moves in a narrow range in dull market

• Rs 43.24 vs $
• Rs 43.98 vs euro
• Rs 67.33 vs pound
• Rs 35.75 vs yen (100)

The Indian rupee ruled in a narrow range and closed marginally lower at Rs 43.24/25 against the greenback at a dull interbank foreign exchange market today.

The rupee opened nearly steady at 43.22/24, eased slightly to 43.24/25 later in the morning on some dollar demand by banks, mainly by State Bank of India. Thereafter, it hovered around that level throughout the day, with just half-paise movement in both sides and ended at 43.24/25, a bit lower from the previous day's close of 43.2250/2350, declining by about one paisa.

Dealers said the market remained dull during the day as major corporates prefered a ''wait and watch'' attitude and stayed away.

Forward market witnessed relatively good activity and premia moved up slightly on paying pressure. Near forwards inched up by 1-2 paise while far forwards rose by 2-3 paise. The six-month and yearly annualised premia ended marginally higher at 4.70 per cent and 5.20 per cent respectively as compared to 4.59 per cent and 5.16 per cent of the previous day.

cash/spot and cash/tomorrow premia ended at 1.00-1.25 per cent paise and 0.50-0.75 paise respectively. The month-wise premia in paise were: July 7-7.5, August 24-25, September 39-41, October 55-57, November 74-76, December 90-93, January 111-114, February 131-133, March 151-154, April 172-175, May 192-195 and June 213-216.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate for US dollar at Rs 43.24 as against Rs 43.23 of the previous day. In the cross curreny also, the rupee eased a bit against pound sterling, euro and yen. It ended against sterling at Rs 67.33 (67.23), euro at Rs 43.98 (43.95) and yen at Rs 35.75 (35.55).

At the domestic money market, the call rates ruled in slightly higher range on good demand for funds ahead of the reporting Friday.

The rates ended at 8.90-9.00 per cent, marginally higher from the previous close of 8.30-8.40 per cent.

UNI

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