Rupee maintains firm level; ends at 40.52/53/USD

Mumbai, June 4: The Rupee maintained its firm trend on the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market today and ended at 40.52/53 per dollar, almost flat from last Friday's close of 40.54 a dollar.

The local currency opened higher at 40.50/52 and fell to Rs 40.55 for some time in the noon. It recovered smartly from the low and was quoted at Rs 40.45, before finishing at Rs 40.52/53 against the American Greenback, dealers said.

''The rupee's firm opening was on expected lines,'' said a senior forex dealer adding that RBI's presence in the market helped the local currency to maintain the firm trend.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today fixed the reference rate at Rs 40.47 per US dollar, up by seven paise from Friday's rate of Rs 40.54 per USD.

In the cross currency trade, rupee ended weaker against all the three world currencies Against Euro rupee closed lower at 54.48/49 (54.15) per unit, it finished weaker at Rs 80.30/31 (79.77) per unit and it was ended at 33.14/15 (33.06) per 100 units each against Yen.

Elsewhere, the sixth month and annualised forward premia ended at 2.30 and 2.51 per cent respectively.

UNI