Friday, November 22, 2013

Rupee at 62.92 per dollar in afternoon session

Since January, the rupee has weakened 12.58% and has lost the third most among Asian currencies during the period after Indonesian rupiah and Japanese yen. Photo: Priyanka Parashar/Mint

Mumbai: The Indian rupee was little changed against the US dollar as demand for dollars from state-owned banks was met by sales by foreign banks.

At 2.45pm, the Indian currency was trading at 62.92 per dollar little changed from Thursday’s close of 62.94 per dollar. It had earlier weakened below 63 per dollar for the first time this week, touching an intra-day low of 63.08 per dollar.

“Dollar-rupee is not moving much because demand and supply are almost matched. State-owned banks are buying dollars likely to meet demand from oil companies, but it has been observed that these banks are also selling at 63 and below, which could be on behalf of Reserve Bank of India (RBI),” said a dealer with a French bank.

Dollar sales by foreign banks likely on behalf of their clients, investing in India also helped the rupee. “No one can say whether they are selling on behalf of RBI or not but yes state-owned banks have come in to sell dollars to smoothen rupee volatility,” said the dealer with the French bank.

Since January, the rupee has weakened 12.58% and has lost the third most among Asian currencies during the period after Indonesian rupiah and Japanese yen

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, trading at 80.905, down 0.21% from the previous close of 81.073

The 30-share BSE Sensex lost 0.06% to 20240.20 points while the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE’s) broader 50-share Nifty gained 0.12% to 6,006.05 points.

The yield on the 10-year benchmark bond rose was unchanged at 9.08% It had opened at 9.08% and touched a high of 9.12%.

The overnight call money rate was also little changed at 8.72% from the previous close of 8.70%.