Rupee Down By 7 Paise, Closes At 67.49 Against US Dollar. 10 Points

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The rupee resumed lower at 67.48 from overnight close of 67.42 at forex market."Markets are awaiting the outcome of the monetary policy
meeting from the three central banks (FOMC, ECB and BoJ)
Fed is expected to raise its interest rates tomorrow while ECB likely to debate to decide the timeline of its current QE (quantitative
easing)programme," Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit Financial Services said. There was importer dollar demand, mainly from
state run oil marketing companies (OMCs) and surpassed mild selling of the greenback by exporters, a forex dealer said. Meanwhile, Indian
bourses soared to fresh four-month high, joining a global relief rally sparked by the historic summit between the US and North Korea on
denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Bond markets, however, witnessed a mix trend and the10-year benchmark bond yield finished higher
at 7.97 per cent
Crude oil prices also edged higher today with the Brent crude gaining 30 cents at USD 76.76 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate 20 cents
at $66.30. The rupee resumed lower at 67.48 from overnight close of 67.42 at the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market on bouts of
dollar demand
It lost further ground to hit a low of 67.52 in mid-morning deals before a trend reversal. After touching a fresh intra-day high of 67.35
briefly during the fag-end trade, the local unit once again turned volatile and reversed all its gains to end at 67.49, showing a loss of 7
paise, or 0.10 per cent. The RBI, meanwhile, fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 67.4571 and for the euro at 79.3498
Globally, the dollar hovered near a three-week high against the yen. The dollar index, which measures the greenback's value against a
basket of six major currencies, was up at 93.63
In the cross currency trade, the rupee also retreated against the pound sterling to settle at 90.31 per pound from 90.03 and remained weak
against the euro to close at 79.47 from 79.45 earlier. Retail inflation inched up to 4.87 in May on increase in prices of certain items in
the food basket, official data released after market hours showed
Industrial production grew by 4.9 per cent in April this year, spurred by higher growth in manufacturing and mining sectors, compared to 3.2
per cent in April last year and 4.4 pe cent in March. In forward market today, premium for dollar looked updue to mild paying pressure from
corporates
The benchmark six-month forward premium payable in October inched higher to 109.25-111.25 paise from 109-111paise and the far-forward April
2019 contract edged up to253-255 paise from 252-254 paise on Monday. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by
TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)