MUMBAI (Commodity Online): Rupee edged up marginally in initial trades, alongside most of its regional peers, aided by euro that stabilized in early Asian trades on Tuesday, July 19, 2011.
The domestic currency opened up by mere 3 paise at Rs. 44.54/55 per dollar but lost momentum and edged down to register a low of 44.59 so far during the day. The local unit along with other currency peers would continue to watch the euro for direction.
Nevertheless, the domestic equities are expected to limit any major decline in the Indian unit. Rupee, in the spot currency market was last seen traded at 44.58, almost unchanged as compared to previous close.
Although the European unit held steady on Tuesday, after having slipped in the previous session, the single common currency remains vulnerable to worries about the prevailing euro zone debt crisis.
Tension in Europe remains high ahead of a meeting slated for Thursday in which euro-zone leaders are due to finalize a bailout package for Greece in an effort to contain the region's ongoing debt crisis. Euro managed to rebound to near 1.4080 levels, currently traded against the greenback after having slid to 1.4013 and to a record low of 1.1365 versus the Swiss franc the previous day.
The US dollar index which measures the performance of the U.S. unit against a basket of six currencies is down 0.19% at 75.34. Among Asian currencies, the Taiwan dollar added 0.05% at 28.92, the South Korean won 0.18% at 1059.00 while Indonesian Rupiah remained unchanged at 8558.75 as against the US dollar.
FIIs sold Indian shares worth a net Rs 93.01 crore on Monday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 163.62 crore on that day. At the time of writing, India's key benchmark BSE Sensex is up 44.85 points at 18551.89 while S&P CNX Nifty also gained 11.75 points at 5578.80.
In the domestic currency futures market on the NSE, the front month July'2011 contract opened on Tuesday at 44.61, higher than spot market rupee. The contract hit an intraday high at 44.65 and registered a low at around 44.59 so far during the day.
Meanwhile, euro- rupee contract is up 0.26% at 62.87 from 62.71 in the previous session. The JPY/INR contract inched up 0.04% to 56.44 from 56.41 while the GBP/INR contract is down 0.07% at 71.77 from 71.82 at close on Monday.
At the time of writing, the NSE as well as MCX July 2011 USD/INR contract was trading at around 44.66 almost flat from the previous close. Rupee on the contract will likely find an intraday resistance at 44.72.
