MUMBAI, NOV 28: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today pumped in around $ 150-200 million in the inter-bank foreign exchange market to prevent the rupee from breaking the Rs 39 barrier against the dollar. The Indian currency which hit a new low of Rs 38.85/88 on renewed corporate demand for the dollar recovered subsequently and closed at Rs 38.56/58 following the RBI intervention.With this, the RBI has pumped in over $ 2 billion in the forex market to arrest the rupee slide in the past 45 days, a highly placed RBI source said. The rupee had closed at Rs 38.55/60 on Thursday.The central bank came out with a series of measures - including postponement of CRR cut - to stem the rupee slide. These measures are expected to cool down the forex market when it resumes for business on Monday. The forward premium went up substantially after exporters held back from bringing in their export proceeds following a newspaper report that the government and RBI had fixed a band of five per cent above/below Rs 38.40 per dollar within which the rupee will trade and were not worried by the fall in the rupee's value.Reports suggesting the government was planning an exchange rate band for the Indian rupee have no official basis, a central bank official said. ``These as well as other newspaper reports have no official basis," a senior official of the RBI added.The six-month forward premium went up by 60 basis points to close at 6.61 per cent while the one-year forward premium went up by 65 basis points to close at 6.5 per cent today. "Forwards have shot up due to political instability and the reported news item that a band has been fixed. Exporters have not brought any proceeds today even though the step by the RBI was to entice to bring in their proceeds," said a dealer.Moreover, the RBI suprisingly did not intervene in the forward market. Throughout the week the RBI was conducting swaps to take off pressure from the spot rupee. "The forwards went up by 20 paise in all maturities,'' dealers said.The forward premium for January finished at 43/44 paise, February at 64/65, March at 85/87, April 105/107, May 125/127 and June at 11
