Crr Covering Leads To Fund Crunch

After a long spell of abundance of liquidity, the interbank money and bond markets faced a fund crunch today.

The overnight call rates rose to around 5.10 per cent as against a daily average of 4.25-50 per cent in the recent past.

In the foreign exchange market, continuous short selling of dollars in anticipation of an appreciation in the rupee owing to a global weakness in dollar created a frantic rush for cash dollars.

Although the spot rupee opened higher at 45.71/72 to a dollar, it ended at 45.79/80, losing four paise compared with yesterday