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Rupee calm in dull trading, ends one paisa lower; Rs 42.49/50 vs $

The rupee, after moving in a narrow range, ended marginally lower on a quiet interbank foreign exchange market today.

Opening slightly lower at Rs 42.50/5050, the rupee remained more or less at that level till noon on month-end dollar demand.

Later in the evening, it eased a bit on fresh dollar sales and closed at Rs 42.4975/5025 against Rs 42.4850/4950, losing about one paisa.

The market was very quiet and the activity was moderate, dealers said adding that major players stayed away in the absence of any market moving factors around and the rupee's stability for last few days.

Forward premia eased on good receivings mainly by State Bank of India. Near-forwards ended by 2-3 paise lower while far-forwards eased by about 10 paise. Cash/spot ended at 2.50-3.00 paise premium and cash/tom finished at 0.25-0.50 paise premium.

The month-wise premia in paise were: February 16-17, March 39-41, April 68-70, May 89-91, June 115-117, July 142-144, August 168-170, September 195-197, October 223-226, November 251-254, December 281-284 and January 311-314.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate for US dollar at Rs 42.50 against Rs 42.49 of the previous day.

The Indian rupee appreciated slightly against pound sterling, euro and Japanese yen. Sterling ended at Rs 70.07 (70.21), euro at Rs 48.58 (48.94) and yen at Rs 36.80 (37.19).

In the domestic money market, the call rates closed marginally lower at 8.15-8.25 per cent on slack demand for funds, ahead of the reporting Friday.

In Tokyo, the dollar stayed above the Wednesday's level but retreated slightly from strong gains overnight. Dollar bought 115.46 yen, up 1.64 yen from its late Wednesday's level. The euro was traded at 132.10, up from 131.59 yen of late Wednesday.

UNI

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