Rupee recovers 16 paise against USD

Forex dealers attributed the rise in the value of rupee to sale of dollars by exporters and some banks, expecting the dollar to fall in view of some recovery in global crude oil prices.

Global crude oil was trading below USD 98 a barrel in London today after breaching the USD 100-mark.

Lack of any major demand from importers too helped the rupee to rebound from the overnight loss, they added.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold shares to the tune of USD 495.88 million on February 24 as per SEBI data but were not able to weigh heavy on the rupee.

In narrow movements at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit opened higher at 45.40/41 a dollar from yesterday`s close of 45.48/49 on initial firmness in the equities.

It moved in a range of 45.43 and 45.27 before settling at 45.32/33 per dollar.

The US dollar fell to a record low against the Swiss franc and lost ground against both the Japanese yen and the euro yesterday in New York while the dollar index, gauge of six major currencies, was up by 0.15 per cent in European market today.

The rupee premium for the forward dollar closed stable.

The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in August finished at its overnight closing level of 145-147 paise and far-forward contracts maturing in February settled at 275-277 paise from 275-1/2-277 paise previously.

The Reserve Bank of India has fixed the reference rate for the dollar at Rs 45.37 and the euro at Rs 62.68.

The rupee also rebound to end at Rs 72.91/93 against the pound sterling from Thursday`s close of Rs 73.49/51 and also rose to Rs 62.46/48 per euro from Rs 62.62/64 previously.

It too bounced back against the yen to Rs 55.37/39 per 100 yen from last close of Rs 55.57/59.