Rupee slips further by 7 paise closes at 41.93/94

Mumbai, June 26: The Indian rupee continued its decline today and lost another seven paise against U S Dollar to settle at Rs 40.93/94 per dollar from its previous close of Rs 40.86/87, before touching the day's low of 41.02/03, amidst volatile trading at the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market.

The Indian Unit opened weak at Rs 40.95/96, it fell beyond 41.02/03, during the course of trading, dealers said.

Dealers said the forex market witnessed ''wild and sharp'' movements and corporates such as L&T and Ranbaxy reportedly pressed sales pushing the rupee down further.

''It was surprising to the market, since there were no clear directions of the trend,'' said a senior forex dealer at the leading private bank.

In the overseas, high-yielding Asian units like the Indonesian rupiah came under pressure today. Local dealers said overseas investors were paring their rupee holdings in the offshore market as investors trimmed riskier assets after US stocks slipped.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has fixed its reference rate at Rs 40.95 per U S Dollar, down by 14 paise from the previous day's rate of Rs 40.81.

In the forwards, sixth month forward premia ended higher at 2.92 per cent and annualised at 2.78 per cent from the previous levels of 2.35 and 2.49 per cent respectively.

Like its decline against U S Dollar, the rupee ended sharply lower against the world major currencies. It closed at 54.96/97 (54.86/87) per Euro, and Rs 81.65/66 (81.46/47) per pound and settled at Rs 33.16/17 (33.01/02) per 100 yen.

UNI