MUMBAI (Commodity Online): Rupee opened almost flat on Wednesday, June 15, 2011 trailing weak local shares and a gaining greenback overseas.
The domestic currency commenced at Rs 44.74 per dollar, same as previous closing price and remained in a narrow range. The local unit hit an intra day high of 44.68 so far during the day.
In the spot currency market, the Indian rupee was last seen trading at 44.69 at 10.45 AM IST, higher by around 5 paise or 0.12% as compared to previous close at 44.74.
The domestic currency remained weak weighed down by negative local shares. The key benchmark indices drifted lower in early trade on mostly lower Asian stocks and on fall in US index futures. Meanwhile, on the macro front, the latest government data showed that headline inflation rose 9.06% in May 2011, higher than 8.66% rise in April 2011, hurting investor sentiments.
The government also revised upwards the inflation rate for March 2011 to 9.68% from the provisional 9.04% reported earlier. At the time of writing, India's key benchmark BSE Sensex was down around 48 points at 18260 while S&P CNX Nifty was also lower by around 15 points at 5486.00.
In the domestic currency futures market on the NSE, the forward month June USD/INR contract opened on Wednesday at 44.82, higher than the spot market rupee. The contract hit an intra day high at 45.85 and registered a low at around 44.79 so far during the day.
At the time of writing, the NSE as well as MCX Jun 2011 USD/INR contract was trading at around 44.80 lower by around 6 paise or 0.13% compared to previous close at 44.86.
