Rupee down 27 paisa at 46.91/92 against dollar

The Indian rupee today fell by 27 paise at 46.91/92 against the US dollar impacted by a sharp slide in local equities and Reserve Bank's decision to raise the amount parked by banks in government securities.

The domestic currency breached the 47-level and fell to 47.01 against the dollar after the central bank hiked Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) by 1% to 25% and kept other key policy rates and ratios unchanged.

Even as SLR is hiked to 25%, it would not have any impact on the liquidity as banks are already maintaing it at over 27%, analysts said.

Forex dealers said a sharp fall in local stocks and the RBI decision to raise SLR adversely affected the rupee sentiment. Also, a little dollar demand from importers in the light of release of the monetary policy during the day impacted the domestic currency.

In active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market, the rupee moved in a wide range of 46.75 and 47.01 during the day after resuming weak at 46.89/90 a dollar from its last close of 46.64/65 a dollar.

Indian benchmark Sensex ended down 387 points or 2.31% after the monetary policy.

Meanwhile, weakness in dollar againt euro failed to have any major impact on the Indian rupee.The Reserve Bank of India,  however, fixed the reference rate for the US dollar at Rs46.83 and for the euro at Rs69.80. Rupee premiums on the forward dollar ended lower on fresh receiving by exporters.

The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in March ended down at 57-58 paise from 60-62 paise on Monday and
far-forwards maturing in September closed lower at 135-137 paise from 142-144 paise previously.

In cross-currency trade, the domestic currency fell against the pound sterling and Japanse yen while recovered against the euro.

The rupee declined further against the pound to end at Rs76.94/66 per pound from Monday's close of Rs76.24/26 and also moved down further against Japanese yen to end at Rs51.02/04 per 100 yen from overnight close of Rs50.84/86 previously.

However, recouped against euro to end at Rs69.80/82 from yesterday's closing level of Rs70.13/15.