RTRS:Rupee little changed; eyes on euro zone meeting
(Reuters) - The rupee was stuck in a narrow range on Tuesday after the previous session's rally, as exporters selling dollars in the local market cushioned the impact of negative local shares and oil refiners' demand for the greenback.
At 10:51 a.m. (0521 GMT), the partially convertible rupee was at 51.9450/9525 per dollar, almost steady from its close of 51.9550/9650 on Monday -- when it posted its biggest single-session rise in a month. It has moved in a 51.88-52.03 band so far.
"We have seen software exporters selling in the market, which is offsetting demand from the oil importers, and hence the rupee is steady," said Vikas Babu, a foreign exchange trader at Andhra Bank.
Traders expect the local unit to trade in a 51.80-52.10 range during the day.
"Exporters are seen selling whenever the rupee goes above 52 per dollar," a dealer with a state-run bank said.
"However, the rupee might weaken today if oil importers step up demand during the day," he added.
Oil is India's largest import item and oil refiners are the largest buyers of dollars in the local market. Demand typically increases towards the month-end, when the refiners step-up dollar purchases to make payments.
Brent fell below $109 after posting its largest gains in a month in the previous session, while Indian shares were down about 0.6 percent.
The market was keenly watching to see how Europe would tackle its debt crisis at a meeting of euro zone finance ministers later in the day when they are to agree on the details of bolstering their bailout fund to help prevent contagion in bond markets.
The euro was trading at $1.3355, compared with $1.3370 when the rupee closed on Monday, while the index of the dollar against six major currencies was at 79.029 points versus 78.884 previously.
The one-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at 52.26.
The one-month onshore forward dollar premium was at 28.75 points from 27.50 on Monday, the three-month was at 64 points from 63 and the one-year premium was at 170 points, from 162.
In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and the United Stock Exchange were both at 52.2200, while those on the MCX-SX were at 52.2175. Total volume was at $782 million.
