The Indian rupee snapped a two-day winning streak on Thursday as large dollar demand from a big company, custodian banks and importers along with a weak domestic stock market weighed. The partially convertible rupee closed at 45.16/17 per dollar, 0.2 percent below Wednesday's close of 45.085/095. In early trade the rupee rose as high as 44.9750, its strongest since December 14.
Traders said a large infrastructure company was seen buying dollars in the market. Importers, mainly oil firms, who are the largest buyers of dollars in the local currency market too pumped up dollar buying to meet month-end requirements. The euro was trading at $1.3095 when the rupee closed, after having risen as high as $1.3153 earlier in the session. The index of the dollar against six major units was down just 0.16 percent, retreating from a fall of as much as 0.5 percent.
The one-year forward dollar premium <INR1Y=> rose as high as 256.75 points, its highest since October 28, and up from Wednesday's close of 252 basis points. In currency futures, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and United Stock exchange closed at 45.1925, while those on the MCX-SX ended at 45.1950.