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SBI's late dollar selling checks rupee slide; Rs 42.48/50

The Indian rupee depreciated by three paise against the American greenback in an active interbank foreign exchange (forex) market in Bombay today.

The rupee opened higher at Rs 42.42/45 against the previous close of Rs 42.45/47, touched day's low of Rs 42.52/53 on good dollar demand from corporate sectors and banks.

At the fag-end of the day the major market player State Bank of India sold some dollar at Rs 42.48/50 to shore up recover Indian units, which halted to further depreciation and closed at the same level (Rs 42.48/50), leading dealers said and added that SBI was doing both way transactions.

Some sops announced by Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde yesterday failed to improve the market sentiments, leading private commercial bank dealers said.

The cash spot business was done at 0.75-1.00 paise premium and cash to tom was quoted 0.00-0.25 paise premium.

The Reserve Bank of India (rbi) has fixed the reference rate for US dollar at Rs 42.49 two paise higher against previous fix of Rs 42.47.

Another dealer said, the spot dollar strengthen while forward dollar ruled almost steady.

On an annualised basis, the monthly premium in per cent for the first month annualised basis premia was traded higher at 3.38, third month at 5.43 and sixth month was at 6.96 and the annualised premia also gained at 8.3 per cent.

The month-wise premium in per cent were 7-9 for August, 25-27 for September, 47-50 for October, 76-79 for November, 107-110 for December, 137-140 for January, 168-172 for February, 204-208 for March, 240-244 for April, 274-278 for May, 306-311 for June and 340-345 for July.

In the overseas market, rupee higher against pound sterling Rs 69.40 (69.52) and Japanese yen Rs 29.40 (29.54) while the rupee slide against deutsche mark seen lower Rs 24.02 (23.99). In the merchant section, a nominal amount of export and import booking were conducted.

UNI