The Hindu Business Line : Rupee sharply up; gilts tad firmer

"The US payroll data released on Friday was slightly worse than expected. The fact that US interest rate may not be hiked further has also led toa rally in the other major currencies," said a dealer at a private bank.

The FII inflows in the market also buoyed the home currency, said dealers.

In the forward premia market, the 12-month closed at 1.4 per cent (1.10) while the 6-month ended at 1.87 per cent (1.40).

In the bond market, prices moved up by around five paise during the day but traded volumes were not high.

Dealers said that there was lack of buying interest in the market with the crunch in the liquidity still remaining a concern.

A dealer at a private bank said that the cut-off price of the 9.39 per cent 2011 Government stock was 10 paise lower than expectation, while it was a rupee higher in the case of 7.40 per cent 2035 paper.

The 8.07 per cent 11-year 2017 paper opened at Rs 106.59 (7.19 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs 106.64 (7.18 per cent YTM), lower than Friday's Rs 106.67 (7.18 per cent YTM). The 10.25 per cent 15-year 2021 paper opened at Rs 125.56 (7.34 per cent YTM) and ended at Rs 126.61 (7.33 per cent YTM), lower than the previous close at Rs 126.63 (7.33 per cent YTM).

The call rate closed at 6.50/60 per cent (5.5). In the first one-day repo auction, the Reserve Bank of India received 18 bids for Rs 8,820 crore and no bids in the reverse repo auction. In the second one-day reverse repo auction, the RBI received three bids for Rs 515 crore and 15 bids for Rs 4,605 crore in the repo auction.

In the CBLO market, there were 288 trades for Rs 13,699.50 crore in the 6.15-6.30 per cent range.