Rupee at 49.85 against dollar

MUMBAI: The rupee pared some gains by Monday noon, after rising to its highest level in 6 weeks on back of gains in stocks and upswing in some Asian currencies.

By 12 noon, the rupee was at 49.85 against the dollar, although off an early high of 49.83, its strongest since February 25. It ended on Thursday at 50 per dollar. Both bond and currency markets were shut on Friday on account of Good Friday and will be closed on Tuesday again.

"There are not much volumes in the market with the rupee trading in a narrow range of 15 paisa as yet," said Navin Raghuvanshi, associate vice president at DCB. "There is support emerging at 49.83 though," he said.

The dollar edged up against the yen in quiet trade on Monday with many international players still away for the Easter holiday.

Bond yields fell to fresh two-week lows on Monday as liquidity in the banking system kept up the demand for bonds, though an auction is scheduled to happen later this week.

At 12 noon, the yield on the 10-year benchmark bond was at 6.71%, off an early low of 6.62%, its lowest since March 24. The bond had ended Thursday at 6.70%.

After market hours on Thursday, the government had announced an auction of Rs 12,000 crore of bonds on April 17.

Liquidity was good with call rates trading at 3.55% at 1130am, near the reverse repo rate with CBLO rate at under 2%, as per CCIL.