Rupee ends up by 22 paise at 48.26/28 per USD

Mumbai, Oct 13 (UNI) The Rupee today ended higher at 48.26/48.28 against the US dollar with a gain of 22 paise on sustained selling of dollars by foreign banks on reports of Union Finance Minister's assurance to take more measures to address the liquidity problems.

The rupee bounced back against the greenback in early morning trade on Monday after the Finance Minister P Chidambaram assured this morning that the government was working on more measures to address liquidity problems, a leading dealer said.

In active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market, the domestic currency resumed stronger at 48.25/27 from its previous close of 48.46 and later improved to 48.20/22 against the dollar in late morning deals.

Forex dealers said the Rupee drew support from the government's statement that fresh measures are expected shortly to improve liquidity after two rounds of CRR cut last week.

The Reserve Bank of India slashed the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by 1.5 per cent with effect from October 11 to release Rs 60,000 crore in the system. They said a strong surge in equity markets also aided the rupee sentiment.

However, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today fixed the reference rate for US dollar at Rs 48.14 per unit, down by 58 paise, against Friday's rate of Rs 48.72 per dollar. The reference rate for Euro also eased by 27 paise at Rs 65.63 per unit from Friday's rate of Rs 65.90 per unit, a RBI release stated.

Meanwhile, the six-month and annualised forward dollar premiums were higher 0.49 (0.10) per cent and 0.41 (0.18) per cent respectively.

The rupee today recoverd smartly after the last few days at 65.68/70 (65.80/82) per unit against the Euro. It closed at 83.56/58 (82.46/48) per unit against the Pound Sterling and at 48.01/03 (48.90/92) per hundred units against the Japanese Yen.

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