Rupee Closes Lower At 35.74 Against Dollar

Dealers said there was a further fall in premiums yesterday especially in the long term.

According to market reports, the spot dollar rates opened at around Rs 35.72/35.74 but moved up to Rs 35.76 at which there was a good amount of selling reported.

After this there was a decline in dollar rates to Rs 35.74 at which they remained for most of the day. Dealers said that most deals took place at around Rs 35.75 The spot dollar closed at Rs 35.74/75.

Some dealers stated that there were a fairly large amount of corporates in the market yesterday. The rates, however, remained in the Rs 35.72 and Rs 35.75 range all through the day.

Dealers said that there was a fall in premiums by nearly seven paise. This was on account of the sell-off of forward dollars by a lot of banks. The decline in premium rates is seen both on the one month and the six month premium the most. For the months in between there is not much of a change in the levels. Premiums for the two months to five month periods have remained at around the same levels as they were on Tuesday. The monthly premium rates were at 8/10 paise for September, 37/39 paise for October, 67/69 paise for November, 99/103 paise for December, 140/142 paise for January, 172/174 paise for February and 202/204 paise for March.

The annualised rates were between 10.2 per cent and 10.3 per cent lower than the 10.5 per cent to 10.75 per cent levels of Tuesday.

There was a fairly good amount of sell-off against the dollar in international markets on Tuesday evening after the US attack on Iraq. The dollar was however fairly steady against the mark, yen and the Swiss franc yesterday evening.