Rupee falls by 21 paise against USD, closes at 40.96/97

Mumbai, June 13 (UNI) Heavy demand for U S Dollars from oil importers pushed the Indian Rupee down by 21 paise to close at 40.96/97 per U S Dollar as against the previous close of 40.75/76 on a day of volatile trading at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market today.

The local currency made a weak start at Rs 40.85/87 per U S Dollar. Surpassing the Rs 41 level, it touched the day's low of Rs 41.08/09 in the afternoon trade, before settling at 40.96/97, forex dealers said.

''Heavy demand for U S Dollar mainly from oil importers, followed by the routine covering, pushed down the Rupee when supply was restricted in the market,'' said Mr Indrajit Sengupta, chief forex dealer at the Canara Bank.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also fixed the reference rate at Rs 40.93 per US dollar, down by 20 paise from yesterday's rate of Rs 40.73 per USD.

As per the data available till last Monday, the RBI bought USD 2.06 billion through an intervention in April 2007, thus, taking the total to USD 24 billion for the six months since November 2006.

However, the Rupee has risen more than 8 per cent against the Dollar this year to be Asia's best performing currency, despite the intervention by the Central Bank, dealers said.

In the forwards section, sixth months forward premia ended higher at 3.23 (3.00) per cent and annualised premia ended at 2.98 (2.85) per cent.

The Rupee ended weaker against all the three major global curencies from its previous finish. Against Euro, Rupee ended at 54.27/28 (54.23), it closed at 80.57/58 (80.20) per Pound Sterling while the Indian unit finished lower at 33.45/46 (33.37) per 100 Yen.

UNI