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Rupee goes down

The Indian rupee weakened against the US dollar on heavy demand from corporate sectors and the State Bank of India at the fag end of trading on the Interbank Foreign Exchange market.

The market opened at Rs 39.21/23 per US unit. Later, it moved up and hovered in the Rs 39.22-28 range for most of the day. At the fag end SBI bought heavily, pushing the dollar to Rs 39.28/30.

The Reserve Bank of India intervened heavily in the near and forward dollar, drifting the premia lower. The RBI intervened in March, April, May and June.

Despite thin activity, Deutsche mark strengthened against the US dollar on heavy profit booking and the positive aspects of the Japanese yen, dealers said.

The RBI has fixed the reference rate at Rs 39.25 as against Rs 39.21 of the last working day.

No major activity was witnessed in merchant sections as overseas dealers were enjoying their year-end holidays. Only a nominal transaction was observed in cash to spot basis.

The sixth month annualised premium stood at 8.5 per cent. Due to the heavy intervention in the forward premia by the central bank, the levels came down heavily. Cash to spot dollar was quoted at 5.00-5.50 paise premium, spot/Jan was traded at 28.00-30.00 paise premium, spot/Feb at 56.00-58.00 paise premium and spot/June dollar was traded between 267.00 and 270.00 paise premium.

UNI