Rupee ends higher at 45.82 against USD, up by 60 paise

Mumbai, Sep 19 (UNI) The Rupee was today quoted below the 46 level and ended firm at 45.82/84 per US dollar with a big gain of nearly 60 paise from its previous close of 46.42 on sustained heavy dollar selling pressure by Banks.

Dealers said the Indian unit was helped by a bullish phase in local shares since the last two days, which renewed expectations of foreign fund inflows, but the dollar's strength overseas is likely to curb sharp gains.

In morning deals, Rupee was quoted higher at 46.34/35 against the US currency after surrendering major part of early gains.

Smart rally in the benchmark Sensex by nearly 380 points at mid morning session mainly helped the rupee to open stronger at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market at 46.15 a dollar from the overnight close of 46.40/42.

However, dollar buying by oil refiners pushed the rupee down at 46.30/32 in late morning deals.

Spurt in local equities was attributed to sharp rebound in world stock markets. Most of the Asian indices were up by 3.0 per cent to 9.4 per cent following steep rise on Wall Street last night.

Reassuring comments by the Finance Minister P Chidambaram about the financial health of the Indian lenders also partly aided the rupee sentiment at early stages.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today fixed the reference rate for US dollar at Rs 46.32 per unit, low by 39 paise, against yesterday's rate of Rs 46.71 per dollar.

The reference rate for Euro was down Rs one and eight paise at Rs 65.90 per unit, from yesterday's close of Rs 66.98 per unit, a RBI release stated.

However. The six-month and annualised forward dollar premium was quoted higher at 1.42 (0.67) per cent and 1.17 (0.62) per cent respectively.

The Rupee ended the day a gainer at 65.17/19 (67.20/22) per unit against the Euro. It closed at 82.58/60 (84.66/68) per unit against the Pound Sterling. Rupee ended at 42.56/58 (44.28/30) per hundred units against the Japanese Yen.

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