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Indian rupee

BOMBAY: The Indian rupee opened slightly weaker compared to its previous close against the dollar adjusting for a shift in the spot date to next week, dealers said.

The settlement date for Tuesday's spot transactions fell on April 17, and the market had adjusted for this shift, they said.

The rupee opened at 43.6125/6175 per dollar against the previous close of 43.6075/6125.

It was quoted at 43.615/62 per dollar at 9:10 a.m. (0340 GMT).

Banks and financial markets are closed on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday for festival holidays.

Dealers said they expected trade to be ranged amid heavy dollar supplies into the market.

"There are only (dollar) inflows. We are not seeing much of corporate demand," a dealer at a foreign bank said.

Lower call rates and easy premiums will encourage traders to hold long dollar positions, they said.

Dealers said the market was likely to watch for news from the border after Indian newspapers reported Defence Minister George Fernandes as saying Pakistan had amassed troops along India's western Gujarat border.

Forward premiums were expected to be soft tracking call money rates.

Dealers said 120 billion rupees locked up in central bank repos would return to the system on Tuesday and this was likely to pressurise near-term premiums lower.

The six-month premium ended Monday at an annualised 2.75 percent. -Reuters

China yuan ends higher, central bank buying likely

SHANGHAI: China's yuan gained ground against the U.S. dollar very late in Tuesday's session, ending almost a week of weakness, aided by likely central bank intervention, dealers said.

The yuan ended at 8.2791 to one U.S. dollar against 8.2796 on Monday as it moved in a narrower range of 8.2787 to 8.2800, compared with 8.2790 to 8.2819 on Monday.

"Dollar buying was strong, pushing down the yuan to its key support of 8.2800 in late trade," said a dealer at a local bank.

"But the yuan was lifted back minutes before the closing bell and it is quite possible that central bank came in to buy."

Dollar demand has shown signs of picking up since late March and the slight upward trend might result from China's rising imports, dealers said.

China is due to release foreign trade data for the first quarter of this year in mid-April and some dealers say strong imports could put gradual downside pressure on the yuan.

China's imports soared 54.2 percent year-on-year in the first two months of this year to $28.69 billion while exports surged 41.2 percent to $31.57 billion, official figures showed.

But dealers said the central bank was unlikly to let the yuan dip through the 8.2800 mark in the tightly controlled market.

The yuan firmed against the Japanese yen to 7.7735 to 100 yen from 7.9509 on Monday. It rose one notch up against the Hong Kong dollar to close 1.0625 against its 1.0626 finish on Monday. -Reuters

Indonesian rupiah

JAKARTA: Indonesia's rupiah strengthened early on Tuesday as long dollar players continued to unwind positions amid improved sentiment over a meeting of the country's creditors in Paris on Wednesday.

The local unit was trading at 7,605/7,620 to the dollar compared with 7,640/7,660 in late local trade on Monday.

"Market tone has improved a lot over the past several days. All the bad news seems to have been discounted. The market is now testing the 7,600 area," one U.S. bank dealer said.

Local corporate dollar selling helped the rupiah early on Tuesday amid optimism the IMF would back Jakarta's bid to reschedule $2.1 billion in foreign debt in this week's meeting of creditors in Paris, he added.

Another dealer said new resistance for the rupiah was seen at 7,550, with a successful conclusion of the Paris meeting expected to further push the local unit to test 7,500.

Bank Indonesia said 5.4 trillion in rupiah funds matured early on Tuesday. The benchmark rupiah overnight interbank rate hovered around 9.50 percent for most local banks and around 9.375 percent for foreign banks. -Reuters

Taiwan dollar breaks three-day rise, ends lower

TAIPEI: The Taiwan dollar broke a three-day rising streak to end lower against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday on what dealers said was aggressive central bank intervention aimed at warning off speculative trade.

Dealers said exporters sold U.S. dollar and a continued wave of foreign fund inflows slowed the local currency's fall.

CLOSE: T$30.318 to the U.S. dollar, down from Monday's T$30.302 finish. On the smaller Cosmos market the Taiwan currency also ended softer at T$30.316 against Monday's T$30.287.

TURNOVER THROUGH DEALERS: relatively heavy at US$632 million compared with US$633 million on Monday. Cosmos turnover rose to US$159 million from US$139 million on Monday.

The Taiwan dollar was firmer at T$30.295 to the U.S. dollar at the open, but soon lost upward momentum, hitting a low of T$30.4 as the central bank largely bought the U.S. dollar.

Dealers said central bank moves to reverse the Taiwan dollar's rise were aimed at warning off speculators in the foreign exchange market, where the Taiwan dollar rose to a fresh 29-month closing high on Monday.

Dealers said the Taiwan dollar was seen locked in a consolidation mode in the near term under central bank pressure.

The central bank said on Monday it would allow market forces to determine the exchange rate, but pledged to intervene if it were disrupted by non-economic factors.

Dealers said the Taiwan dollar was still on a firming trend in the longer run since foreign funds continued to flow into the domestic stock market.

Foreign funds were net buyers of T$946 million in local equities on Tuesday, bringing total net buying to T$2.424 billion over the last three sessions.

For Wednesday, dealers said they expected the Taiwan dollar to trade between T$30.29 and T$30.35.

-Reuters