India Forex - Forex Trading in India

India Wednesday 31 March 2010 - The rupee fell the most in two weeks, snapping a four-day advance, as declines in local stocks spurred speculation that overseas investors will slow investments in local assets.

The currency reversed earlier gains as the Sensex declined 0.7% on Tuesday, the most in more than a week. The so-called price-to-earnings ratio of the index, which some investors use to measure how expensive local equities are, touched 26.8 on Monday, the highest level in at least a decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“The rupee continues to closely track the trends in equities, which signals the potential for capital flows,” said Roy Paul, a deputy general manager at Federal Bank in Mumbai. “The currency has weakened following a strong opening.”

The rupee weakened 0.3% to 45.085 per dollar. It earlier rose as high as 44.88, the highest level since September 10, 2008. The currency has strengthened 3.2% so far this year, the third-best performance among Asian currencies after Malaysia’s ringgit and the Indonesian rupiah.

Offshore contracts indicate bets the rupee will trade at 45.14 to the dollar in a month, compared with expectations of 46.02 on Monday. Forwards are agreements in which assets are bought and sold at current prices for future delivery. Non-deliverable contracts are settled in dollars rather than the local currency.

The rupee strengthened earlier on optimism that the nation’s economic recovery will boost company earnings, encouraging overseas investors to raise their holdings of local shares.

India Wednesday 31 March 2010 : Following are the indicative currency notes and travellers cheques buying and selling rates per unit as given by Thomas Cook India.

(Figures in Rupees) ——————— Currencies Buy Sell US Dollar 42.50 47.50 Sterling Pound 64.30 71.35 Euro 56.80 63.35 Australian Dollar 39.40 43.40 Bahrain Dinar 111.75 127.30 Canadian Dollar 41.15 46.30 Danish Kroner 07.40 08.65 Egyptian Pound 05.95 08.50 Hong Kong Dollar 05.30 06.30 Japanese Yen/100 45.15 50.25 Jordan Dinar 56.55 65.50 Kuwait Dinar 131.55 156.75 Malaysian Ringgit 12.35 15.00 New Zealand Dollar 29.50 34.05 Norwegian Kroner 06.90 08.00 Omani Rial 109.40 124.50 Qatar Rial 11.55 13.25 Saudi Rial 11.20 12.90 Singapore Dollar 29.45 34.50 South African Rand 05.35 06.50 Swedish Kroner 05.65 06.55 Swiss Francs 39.60 45.55 Syrian Pound 00.30 01.05 Thai Baht/100 128.00 150.85 UAE Dirham 11.50 13.00 Chinese Yuan 04.80 07.50.

India Wednesday 31 March 2010 - Moving in tune with stock markets, the Indian rupee today lost 14 paise against the US dollar to snap the three-day winning steak.

Dealers in foreign exchange said the domestic currency weakened as there was month-end demand for the dollar from oil refiners.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit opened slightly higher at 44.91/92 per dollar as against the yesterday’s closing level of 44.95/96 per dollar.

However, it declined at the fag-end of the day to finish the session at 45.09/10 per dollar.

The Indian benchmark Sensex, meanwhile, failed to maintain its last four-session gains and ended lower by 121.18 points or 0.68 per cent.

Sustained capital flows in the past four days have pushed the Sensex up to two-month high. And the rupee also rose in tune with equities to 18-month high of 44.95/96 yesterday.

The Foreign exchange rates in India are updated daily from the data as published by Reserve Bank of India. It covers the currencies – US Dollars, GB Pounds, Euro & Yen.

Closing Forex Rate for the last five days:

India Tuesday 30 March 2010 : Following are the indicative currency notes and travellers cheques buying and selling rates per unit as given by Thomas Cook India.

(Figures in Rupees) ——————— Currencies Buy Sell US Dollar 42.30 47.30 Sterling Pound 63.65 70.60 Euro 56.90 63.45 Australian Dollar 39.35 43.35 Bahrain Dinar 111.25 126.75 Canadian Dollar 40.85 46.00 Danish Kroner 07.40 08.65 Egyptian Pound 05.90 08.50 Hong Kong Dollar 05.25 06.25 Japanese Yen/100 45.55 50.70 Jordan Dinar 56.30 65.25 Kuwait Dinar 131.95 157.25 Malaysian Ringgit 12.35 15.00 New Zealand Dollar 29.40 33.95 Norwegian Kroner 06.90 08.00 Omani Rial 108.90 123.95 Qatar Rial 11.50 13.20 Saudi Rial 11.15 12.85 Singapore Dollar 29.40 34.45 South African Rand 05.35 06.45 Swedish Kroner 05.65 06.55 Swiss Francs 39.60 45.55 Syrian Pound 00.30 01.05 Thai Baht/100 127.65 150.45 UAE Dirham 11.45 12.95 Chinese Yuan 04.80 07.45.

India Tuesday 30 March 2010: The rupee retreated from near 19-month highs on Tuesday afternoon as some banks booked profits after the sharp rally while month-end dollar demand from oil firms and importers also weighed.

Oil is India’s biggest import and refiners are the largest buyers of dollars in the domestic currency market with their demand tending to peak at the end of each month, when they make payments for their imports.

Dealers said trimming of gains in the domestic sharemarket also weighed.

At 1:35 p.m., the partially convertible rupee was at 45.06/07 per dollar, after touching 44.88, its strongest since Sept. 10, 2008 and above its previous close of 44.9575/9675 on Monday.

One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoting at 45.13, weaker than the onshore spot rate.

In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were quoting at 45.08 and 45.1550 respectively, with the total volume on the two exchanges at $4.1 billion.

India Tuesday 30 March 2010 - The rupee rose to its strongest level since September 2008 on speculation that the nation’s pace of economic growth is luring overseas funds to local equities.

The currency advanced for a fourth day, the longest winning streak in three weeks, as Sebi data showed foreign investors bought more Indian shares than they sold for a 17th day through March 25, the longest stretch of net purchases since August. The finance ministry had said in February that the economy might expand 8.2% in the next fiscal. That would be the fastest rate in two years.

“I expect the rupee’s bullish run to continue as growth is attracting investors,” said Naveen Raghuvanshi, a currency trader at Development Credit Bank in Mumbai. “There seems to be no concern for the rupee in the near term.”

The rupee climbed 0.6% to 44.97 per dollar at the close of trade in Mumbai on Monday. It has strengthened 3.5% this quarter, the third-best performance among Asian currencies after Malaysia’s ringgit and the Indonesian rupiah.

Funds based abroad have bought a total of $3.4 billion of local equities this year after purchasing a record $17.6 billion last year.

Offshore contracts indicate bets the rupee will weaken to 45.02 to the dollar in a month, compared with expectations of 45.33 on March 26.

Forwards are agreements in which assets are bought and sold at current prices for future delivery. Non-deliverable contracts are settled in dollars rather than the local currency.

India Saturday 27 March 2010 - The rupee completed a third weekly gain this month as data from Sebi showed overseas funds have bought Indian equities worth a net $3.4 billion this year, adding to last year’s $17.6 billion, raising holdings to a record $76.2 billion on March 25.

The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index had a seventh winning week, the longest stretch since June, taking gains in the past year to 76%. The rupee climbed 0.6$ this week to 45.245 per dollar as of 5 p.m. close in Mumbai from a week ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That is the highest level since September 2008.

Call rates recovered at 3.50% on the overnight call money market here on Friday due to fresh demand from borrowing banks and government bond prices also firmed up owing to good buying from banks and corporates. The call money rate ended higher at 3.50% from Thursday’s closing level of 3.10% after moving in a wide range of 3.85% and 3.50%. The 6.35% government security maturing in 2020 shot up to Rs 89.89 from Rs 89.69 of Thursday, while its yield moved down to 7.85% from 7.88%.

India Saturday 27 March 2010 - India’s foreign exchange reserves dropped by $ 1.515 billion from $ 279.708 billion to $ 278.193 billion in the week ended March 19, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said today.

In data published in its weekly bulletin, the RBI said the country’s foreign currency assets at the end of the week were $ 253.845 billion, lower by $ 1.476 billion from $ 255.321 billion in the previous week.

The foreign currency asets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as Euro, Sterling and Yen held in reserves, it said.

The country’s gold reserves remained unchanged at $ 17.920 billion while Special Drawing Rights (SDR) were down by $ 30 million from $ 5.069 billion to $ 5.039 billion during the period, the bulletin said.

India’s reserve position in the International Monetary Fund also came down to $ 1.389 billion from $ 1.398 billion, it added.

India Friday 26 March 2010 - Even as the global economic meltdown is beginning to fade, the world might be in for another crisis — a currency crisis, a noted expert warned.

“It is a possibility that the next crisis awaiting the world is a currency crisis,” renowned currency expert and non-executive director of Elara Capital, Avinash Persaud, told reporters in Mumbai.

Persaud is the chairman of Intelligence Capital, a firm that advises governments of many G-20 countries on managing their finances and an expert member of the UK government’s Treasury group.

“The measures that were taken to bail-out countries from the financial crisis led to a fiscal crisis and a currency crisis can possibly erupt after this fiscal crisis,” he said.

The fiscal crisis brought about an increased burden on monetary policy and different countries met it in different ways, he said.

“The US and the UK have no other option other than having weak currencies. In fact, the US has a dollar de-valuation policy,” he said.

What India’s banking regulator Reserve Bank has done in its exchange (rate) policy is sensible, by using a basket of currencies, he said.

“India actually manages its currency (rupee) against the dollar. Now the country is using a basket of currencies. In fact, we would want to limit the dollar problems. We don’t want to import dollar problems — the RBI is trying to avoid that. It’s sensible,” he said.