Rupee Dips A Notch, Forwards Quote Lower

The rupee surrendered some of the gains made on Wednesday amid subdued trading in the domestic forex markets yesterday.

With banks closing early on account of Anatadashi, the nature of trading was lacklustre in the spot as well as the forward segments. A few stray deals were, however, struck after 3 pm.

Opening the day a notch higher in the range of 35.66 and 35.67, the rupee declined to 35.68-35.69 on moderate dollar demand led by State Bank of India. However, the rupee later bounced back to 35.68 due to a large dollar sell-off. The closing quote for the day was 35.68.

Forward premiums were marginally lower compared with the Wednesday's figures. The monthly premia rates were around 20/22 paise for October, 41/44 paise for November, 70/74 paise for December, 104/107 paise for January, 134/137 paise for February and 164/168 paise for March end. The annualised rates were, therefore, hovering between 9.3 per cent and 9.45 per cent. These variations in rates were spread across dealers of different banks.

Internationally, the dollar had staged a smart recovery after having dipped on Wednesday. Bankers said the markets had been able to overcome the disappointment over the Fed not hiking rates on the dollar. The dollar-mark rates were quoting at 1.5180, while the dollar-yen rates were at 110.60.