Rupee Teeters To A New Low

Buoyant demand for dollars from corporates forced the rupee to close at a new low of 48.6250/6350 today.

With today's fall, the currency has dipped by 36 paise since January 1. In the last one week, the currency has lost 26 paise. Forwards, however, remained range-bound throughout the day.

Dealers said that though public banks were the main buyers in the market, it seems the dollar purchases were for their clients and not on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India.

A dealer with a foreign bank: "Demand was mainly from state-run banks. However, as one of the large private sector banks were also seen buying dollars from the market, it seemed that the demand for dollar was genuine rather than engineered by the apex bank."

The rupee is, at present, overvalued by more than 2 per cent against the greenback. With other major currencies -- euro, yen and pound sterling -- continuously falling against the dollar, the rupee is needed to fall to help Indian exporters.

On a year-on-year basis, the country's export grew by only 3.3 per cent in November, 2001, against 22.9 per cent in the corresponding month of the previous year.

During April-November, 2001 exports were up merely by 0.5 per cent compared to a 21 per cent growth recorded in the comparable period of the last financial year.

A dealer with a private bank said: "The currency is slated to fall, either by corporate demand or by the intervention by the RBI through public banks. It can even touch 48.70 mark by the end of the week."