Rupee down on oil firm buys; local shares eyed
Rupee down on oil firm buys; local shares eyed
Mumbai: The rupee weakened once again on Thursday afternoon, after briefly erasing early losses, due to likely buying from state-run oil refiners.
In rest of trade, traders said, movement in local shares and the dollar overseas would be key for direction.
At 2:25pm, the partially convertible rupee was at ₹ 45.03/05 per dollar, against ₹ 44.945/955 at close on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, the rupee had recouped losses made in early trade tracking a rebound in local shares and on news Libya had agreed to a peace plan, traders said.
Oil fell over $3 on Thursday after the head of the Arab League said a peace plan for Libya, proposed by Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, was under consideration.
Crude oil is India’s biggest import and state-run oil refiners are the largest buyers of the dollar in the domestic currency market.
The index of the dollar against six major currencies was up 0.1% at 76.757 points. On Tuesday, at the end of local forex market, the index had been at 76.836 points.
The one-month onshore forward premiums were at 25.00 points against 25.50 points on Tuesday.
The one-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at 45.28, weaker than the onshore spot rate.
In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange, the MCX-SX and on the United Stock Exchange were all at 45.2550, with the total traded volume at about $6 billion.
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