Rupee ends lower at 47.40, down by 42 paise against dollar

Mumbai, Nov 3 : The Rupee today weakened by 42 paise to end at a nearly three month low at 47.40 against the dollar as local shares slided by 491 points, brokers at the interbank foreign exchange (forex) said.

The Indian unit resumed low at 47.03 per dollar and then fluctuated in a wide range between 46.98 and 47.50 in intra day trade.

At noon, the partially convertible rupee was at 47.15/16 per dollar, below its previous close of 46.96/97 on Friday.

Financial markets were closed on Monday for a holiday. Shares fell over 3 per cent at end of the session after seeing a swing earlier in the day. Portfolio flows into local shares are a key driver of the rupee. Foreigners have bought more than USD 14 billion of local equities so far this year, after being sellers of more than USD 13 billion in 2008.

The dollar index, a gauge of the US unit's performance versus six majors, was marginally lower, after having been down 0.2 per cent at the start of the Indian trading session.

One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoting at 47.18/28, weaker than the onshore spot rate.

In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were both quoting at 47.2350 each, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about USD 1.8 billion.

Six month forward dollar premium recorded a low at 2.80/82 (3.10/12) per cent and one year dollar premium was quoted lower at 2.84/86 (2.98/3.00).

Rupee today ended weak as major global currencies like Euro closed at 69.38/40 (69.56/58) per unit, while Pound Sterling finished at 77.18/20 (77.60/62) per unit and Yen closed at 52.54/56 (51.46/48) per 100 units, brokers added.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
Unauthorised publication of any content from NewKerala.Com is prohibited