Indian rupee up 7 paise at 54.29 Vs US dollar

The rupee commenced lower at 54.47 against the dollar from its previous close of 54.36 on Tuesday at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market.

It eased further to a low of 54.48 on the back of weakness in stocks and sustained month-end dollar demand in morning deals.

Later,the rupee bounced back on smart recovery in local share markets to a high of 54.25 before settling at 54.29,a net rise of seven paise,or 0.13 per cent from its previous close.

The rupee has fallen over seven per cent this fiscal from 50.73 on April 3 last year,the first day of trade of 2012-13.

Foreign institutional investors bought Indian shares worth USD 105.7 million (Rs 573.87 crore) today,according to provisional BSE data.

“The rupee ended financial year on positive note. The week witnessed low volumes as there were only three working days. Global events were not seen putting a parallel impact on the rupee,” India Forex Advisors founder and CEO Abhishek Goenka said.

The dollar index was down by 0.1 per cent against a basket of six major global rivals.

Meanwhile,the BSE benchmark Sensex closed higher by 131.24 points to 18,835.77.

Pramit Brahmbhatt,CEO,Alpari Financial Services (India) said: “Today equity markets traded volatile as Thursday being the expiry of domestic derivatives. During the day it traded but managed to close up by over 0.7 per cent,which

helped rupee to end strong.”

The premium for the forward dollar ended steady to better on stray paying pressure from corporates and banks.

The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in August closed at 162-1/2-164 paise from Tuesday’s close of 162-1/2-164-1/2 paise.

Far-forward contracts maturing in February finished a tad higher at 332-1/2-334-1/2 paise from 331-1/2-333-1/2 paise.

The RBI fixed the reference rate for the US dollar at 54.3893 and for euro at 69.5438.

The rupee remained firm against the euro to 69.49 from previous close of 69.77 while eased further against the Japanese yen to end 57.63 per 100 yen from 57.61.

It firmed up against the pound sterling to 82.12 from last close of 82.43.

The Forex and Money markets will remain closed tomorrow,March 29,for ‘Good Friday’.