Rupee up by 19 paise Vs dlr on firm equities

“Globally dollar also weakened against major rivals which helped the rupee to perform,” Pramit Brahmbhatt,CEO,Alpari Financial Services (India) said.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market,the domestic currency opened sharply higher at 49.03/04 a dollar against last Wednesday’s close of 49.34/35 and immediately touched a high of 48.90.

Dealers attributed early rise in the rupee value to smart jump in local equities. The BSE benchmark Sensex was up by over 555 points in morning trade.

However,late dollar demand from importers and some banks weighed on the rupee and it fell back to a low of 49.22 before concluding at 49.15/16,a rise of 0.39 per cent.

The Sensex today closed higher by 440.13 points or 2.79 per cent after crashing by 905.66 points or 5.42 per cent in straight last four sessions.

“Strong support is seen at 49.00 and the trading range for the USD/INR will be 49.00 to 49.50 tomorrow,” Brahmbhatt added.

Sustained dollar selling by exporters on the back of dollar weakness in global markets too boosted the rupee sentiment.

The dollar index was down by nearly 0.2 per cent against a basket of currencies and New York crude oil was trading above USD 82 a barrel in European market today.

FIIs pulled out USD 614.99 million in last five trading days since September 29.

“After opening stronger in the morning local unit was not able to maintain the consistency in its strength mainly on account of some state-owned banks accelerating dollar purchases in order to make some defence related payments,” Abhishek Goenka,CEO,India Forex Advisors,said.

“Our target of 50.00 levels for the USD/INR pair is still intact,” he added.

The Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate for the US dollar at Rs 49.1355 and for the Euro at Rs 65.9981.

The rupee premium for the forward dollar rebounded on fresh paying pressure from banks and corporates. The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in March settled up at 77-79-1/2 paise from Wednesday’s close of 64-66 paise and far-forward contracts maturing in September also finished strong at 108-110-1/2 paise from 88-91 paise previously.

The rupee remained weak against the pound sterling to end at Rs 76.37/39 from Wednesday’s close of Rs 76.25/27 and also declined further to Rs 66.06/08 per euro from Rs 65.84/86 previously. It,however,improved further slightly against the Japanese yen to Rs 64.36/38 per 100 yen from last close of Rs 64.39/41.