RTRS:Rupee up on positive shares; importer demand weighs
(Reuters) - The rupee rose on Friday in sync with a rebound in global equities and the euro, but dollar demand from domestic oil refiners limited the rise.
Traders now await the June factory output data due at 0530 GMT for cues on growth, interest rates and, in turn, rupee direction.
At 10:18 a.m. (0448 GMT), the partially convertible rupee was at 45.31/32 per dollar, after touching 45.25 in opening trades. It had closed at 45.4050/1450 on Thursday.
"Not only is oil-related dollar buying continuing, but the Sensex too did not fly away as expected. So people cut their positions," said a senior foreign exchange dealer at a private-sector bank.
The euro was at $1.4185 from $1.4122 at end of domestic currency market on Thursday, while the index of the dollar against six major currencies was at 74.758 points, from 74.982 points previously.
The safe-haven Swiss franc nursed heavy losses in Asia on Friday, having posted record one-day falls against the euro and dollar after the Swiss National Bank threatened to step up its fight to curb the franc's strength.
The BSE Sensex had pared most of its early gains and was 0.2 percent higher, while the MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan was up 0.4 percent on the day. On Thursday, Wall Street had risen by 4 percent. ]
India is estimated to owe around $4 billion to Iran for its oil imports and domestic oil firms have been aggressively buying dollars to make these payments.
Traders said a dash for dollars by oil companies has created a spot dollar shortage and caused onshore forward premiums to crash in the past few days.
The one-month onshore forward premium was at 7 points from 3.50 points on Thursday when it had fallen to a 34-month low of negative 2.75 points.
The three-month was at 30 points from 21.25 points and the one-year onshore forward premium was 131.75 points from 111.50.
One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at 45.48, weaker than the onshore spot rate.
In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange, the MCX-SX and the United Stock Exchange were all at 45.3350. The total volume was at $2.35 billion.
(Reporting by Aditya Phatak; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan)
