MUMBAI: The rupee gave up all its earlier gains and weakened in afternoon trade on Monday weighed by month-end dollar buying by oil importers despite a robust rally in local stocks.
The euro's weakness from its early highs against the dollar added to the pressure on the rupee.
* At 1:48 p.m., the partially convertible rupee was at 45.33/34 per dollar, off an early high of 45.2050 and is expected to move in the 45.20-45.40 band. It had closed at 45.29/30 on Friday.
* "Some more oil importers' (dollar) buying can come as it is the month-end now. Now that 44.30 is breached, we expect the rupee to touch 44.40," said dealer at a private bank.
* The main stock index was up 1.6 per cent, the day's high so far on firm global equity markets.
* One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at 45.48, weaker than the onshore spot rate, suggesting a bearish near-term outlook.
* In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange , MCX-SX, the United Stock Exchange were all at 45.3575, with the total traded volume on the three exchanges at a moderate $3.5 billion.
* Foreign funds have bought shares worth a record $28.4 billion so far in 2010, compared with last year's $17.5 billion, which has helped the rupee gain 2.7 per cent year-to-date.
* The euro climbed about 0.6 per cent to $1.3761, tackling a cluster of resistance in the $1.3750/70 area, including $1.3766, a 38.2 per cent retracement of its Nov 4-18 fall in early Asian trade. It however, came off from the early highs and was at $1.3739.
* The dollar index, which tracks the greenback's performance against a basket of major currencies, was down 0.44 per cent at 78.159.
