MUMBAI (Commodity Online): The Indian rupee commenced marginally higher by mere 3 paise on Friday, July 15, 2011 but remained relatively steady tracking minute gains in the euro overseas.
Rupee opened at Rs. 44.53 per dollar and climbed to a high of 44.47 following domestic shares that started in the positive.
However, local equities fell into the lower terrain within the initial hour of trade taking the domestic currency to a low of 44.53 so far during the day. In the spot currency market, rupee was last seen trading at 44.51, almost unchanged as compared to previous close.
The euro remained more or less steady in early Asia on Friday as investors kept the single common currency on check ahead of the Europe-wide stress tests on 90 banks due later during the day.
The US dollar index which measures the performance of the U.S. unit against a basket of six currencies is down 0.17% to 75.13. Among Asian currencies, the Taiwan dollar lost 0.19% at 28.87, the Indonesian Rupiah 0.05% at 8538.75 while the South Korean won gained 0.10% at 1057.43 as against the US dollar.
In the domestic currency futures market on the NSE, the front month July'2011 contract opened on Friday at 44.62, higher than spot market rupee. The contract hit an intra day high at 44.63 and registered a low at around 44.55 so far during the day. Meanwhile, euro- rupee contract is down 0.07% at 63.17 from 63.22 in the previous session.
The JPY/INR contract fell 0.22% at 56.25 from 56.37 while the GBP/INR contract added 0.20% at 72.03 from 71.89 at close on Thursday.
At the time of writing, the NSE as well as MCX July 2011 USD/INR contract was trading at around 44.58 down by around 1 paise or 0.02% compared to previous close at 44.59. Rupee on the contract will likely find an intra day resistance at 44.65.
