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Mumbai: THE rupee closed on Tuesday unchanged from Monday's levels at 46.89/90 against the dollar in the domestic currency markets.

It was a day of good supplies of the greenback and the central bank was not seen intervening to mop up dollar liquidity, said a dealer in a public sector bank.

"There was unusual demand towards the end of the day which prevented the rupee from appreciating. Private banks were seen buying dollars,'' said a dealer.

Meanwhile in the international markets, the 12-nations' common currency, euro appreciated further against the dollar. "When the euro appreciates, the RBI seems to allow the domestic currency also to surge,'' said a dealer.

The rupee opened at 46.87/88, touched an intra-day high of 46.83 and an intra-day low of 46.91.

In the forwards market, the premia eased by close to 80 basis points, after having risen for four consecutive trading days. The fall was on the back of selling of forwards by exporters betting on the rising rupee, said dealers.

The forward premia touched all-time lows in recent weeks; profit-taking and some hedging by foreign currency loan borrowers led to the intermediary spike in premia.

The six months forward closed at 0.80 per cent (1.57 per cent) and the one-year forward closed at 1.10 per cent (1.71 per cent).

In the debt markets, it was a lacklustre day for G-secs in expectation of open market operations by RBI.

Though there was some intra-day rally of 10-30 paise and volumes crossed Rs 5,300 crore, the day-end prices were quite unchanged from opening level prices.

The ten-year benchmark, 9.81 per cent 2013 paper was at Rs 130.23 towards the end of the trading day, 2 paise below the opening levels of Rs 130.25 with the intra-day high being Rs 130.32. In the longer-end, the 8.07 per cent 2017 paper was at Rs 119.32 towards the fag-end of the day, five paise down from opening levels of Rs 119.37 and the intra-day high pegged at Rs 130.32.

``The smart rally seen in the last three four days was halted with fears of an open market operations,'' said a dealer in a primary dealer.

In the inter-bank call money market, call rates ruled easy with surplus liquidity. The call rates were at 4.50-4.75 per cent towards the end of the trading day.

Through the LAF window, the central bank absorbed funds worth Rs 30,015 crore through 43 bids at the repo rate of 5 per cent.

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