Rupee At 39.48 Against US dollar

The rupee was steady at 39.4850/4950 against a US dollar on Thursday due to suspected central bank intervention, dollar demand from banks and a firm trend in equity markets. In active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market, the local currency fluctuated in a range of 39.45 and 39.55 during the day after resuming higher at 39.45/46 a dollar on the back of initial sharp stock rally.

Attributing the rupee''s better start to capital inflows on Wednesday and strong trend in global equity markets, forex dealers said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is believed to have intervened to cap the rupee surge at the fag end of session. Traders expected the rupee to remain in the current range unless any clear indication of FII inflows into the country.The capital inflows have pushed the rupee by about 12 per cent so far in the year.

The benchmark Sensex, which breached 20K level at the outset, later ended with a moderate gain of 58 points. The RBI, however, fixed the reference rate for the US currency at Rs 39.47 per dollar and for the single European unit at Rs 57.65 per euro.The rupee premium on forward dollar ended hardly changed on alternate bouts of buying and selling. The benchmark six-month forward dollar premiums payable in May ended steady at 27-1/2 - 29-1/2 paise from 27 - 29 paise on Dec 5 and the far-forwards maturing in November closed slightly better at 44 - 46 paise from 42 - 44 paise previously. In cross-currency trades, the local unit recovered against the British sterling and the euro while improved further against the Japanese yen.