Rupee remains steady throughout the week

Mumbai, Jun 24: Sustained capital inflows and fears of Central Bank intervention kept the local unit almost steady throughout the week.

Rupee opened firm this week at 40.77/78 per dollar and climbed up by nearly 10 paise on Tuesday to touch 40.68 on strong capital inflows. The market closed on Friday at 40.75/76.

Inflows remained high to domestic equities while concerns over Reserve Bank of India's intervention was highlighted by the market-watchers as the reason for currency's stability.

Rupee also drew correlation from bourses which surged last week despite liquidity concerns arising from mega follow-on offer of ICICI Bank.

Sensex had closed on Friday with a loss of 31.88 points and settled at 14,467.36.

''Rupee may go up. I see an appreciation in the currency value in coming week unless any intervention occurs by the Central Bank,'' said Senior Forex Dealer of Development Credit Bank Naveen Raghuvanshi.

On Friday, Rupee ended lower by five paise from previous close of 40.71/72 per dollar while investors stood cautious about Reserve Bank's intervention on Rupee's gains which is remaining as Asia's strongest currency.

Foreign Institutional Investments (FIIs) has touched Rs 19,567.80 crore till June 21 and amounted to Rs 3,959.70 crore in May as compared to Rs 6,679.20 crore in April.

The Indian currency is still higher against major world currencies.

Against Euro, Rupee started the week at 54.68/69 and closed on Friday at the same rate.

However, it gained immensely against Yen and Pound Sterling, 23 and 52 paise respectievely.

Rupee closed the week at 32.80/81 and 81.29/30 respectievely as against the opening mark of 33.03/04 and 80.81/82 respectively.

Forward premia continued to be lower this week as six-month premia fell from 2.91 to 2.71 while annualised premia went down to 2.69 from 2.81 at which it opened on June 18.

UNI