Rupee gains against USD, closed firm at 40.81/82 per USD

Mumbai, Jun 28 (UNI) The Indian Rupee posted a handsome gain of 18 paise against the American Greenback and settled at Rs 40.81/82 (41.00) per U S Dollar on huge sell of U S currency amidst volatile trading in the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market today.

The rupee firm at 40.95/97 per dollar. The local currency fell to the day's low of 41.01 in the noon before staging a smart recovery at 40.81/82. The rupee held steady at the higher level till the end of day, netting a gain of 18 paise from its previous close of 41.00 per U S Dollar, dealers said.

The Indian unit has seen a continuos decline since last Friday and recorded a decline by 25 paise against the American Greenback.

However, it today bounced back partially on account of huge sell of dollars by few banks on behalf of their corporate clients, Forex dealers said.

Dealers said one of the leading corporate have reportedly sold of 700 million U S dollars from its one billion portfolio.

''Market, most of the day during the course of trading was extreme volatile and rupee may see further recovery against the U S Dollar in the next few trading sessions,'' Senior Forex dealer at the leading private bank said.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has fixed the reference rate at Rs 40.84 up by 15 paise from the previous day's rate of Rs 41.01 per U S unit.

In the cross currency trade, the rupee has posted gains against all the three major currencies.

Against Euro rupee closed at 54.90/91 (55.10), Pound 81.65/67 (81.85) and it closed higher at 33.16/17 (33.47) against per 100 units of Japanese yen.

UNI