Rupee ends low by six paise at 48.88 per US dollar

Mumbai, Oct 17 (UNI) The Rupee suffered a setback for the third consecutive day today by six paise and ended low at 48.88 against the US dollar as stocks tumbled by over five per cent, raising concerns abut capital outflows.

The Rupee has crashed by 82 paise in the last three days.

The Indian unit, however, resumed high at 48.70 per dollar, but later it widely fluctuated between 48.58 and 48.96 per dollar in intra day trade.

According to marketmen, the rupee was under pressure, with demand for dollars coming from oil refiners and foreign banks which bought dollars in the spot market and simultaneously sold them in the overseas non-deliverable forwards (NDF) market in an attempt to arbitrage the rate differential between the two. Offshore one-month NDF contract was quoted at 49.74/89, weaker by 1.8 per cent than the onshore spot rate.

The rupee has been under pressure, mostly because of the stock market crash. However, some large corporates were also seen selling dollars at regular intervals, said a senior trader from a private bank. At the same time, bankers expect further intervention from RBI, especially on the back of their recent liquidity injection amounting to Rs 1 lakh crore.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today fixed the reference rate for US dollar at Rs 48.68 per unit, down by 18 paise, against yesterday's rate of Rs 48.86 per dollar. The reference rate for Euro increased by 19 paise at Rs 65.70 per unit from it last close of Rs 65.51 per unit, a RBI release said.

However, the six-month and annualised forward dollar premiums were higher by 0.78 (0.48) per cent and 0.63 (0.44) per cent respectively.

The Rupee today ended lower at 65.54/56 (65.84/86) per unit against the Euro. It closed at 84.50/52 (84.02/04) per unit against the Pound Sterling and at 48.38/40 9 48.22/24) per hundred units against the Japanese Yen.

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