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Rupee ends firm, seen lower on regionals

The Indian rupee closed slightly firm on Monday on dollar sales by corporates and custodial banks and dealers said gains were helped by a sharp rise in the country's foreign exchange reserves.

The rupee ended at 46.765/775 to the dollar compared with Friday's close of 46.785/795.

India's foreign exchange reserves registered their biggest jump in calendar 2000, rising $676 million in the week ended November 10, boosted by fresh inflows from a recently concluded overseas deposit scheme of the State Bank of India.

Central bank data released on Saturday showed foreign exchange reserves rose to $35.413 billion from $34.737 billion in the previous week.

But currency traders said further gains in the rupee will be limited by the central bank as the rupee was overvalued by almost two per cent on trade-weighted basis.

The euro continued to remain under pressure, while other Asian currencies were rocked by regional political turbulence and failing corporate reform efforts.

Currency traders said concerns over firm global oil prices continued to weigh on the rupee sentiment and could spark fresh dollar demand from importers.

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