Re slips to 43.43/$, gilts rally

Global strengthening of the dollar led to range-bound trading in the forex market today.

The spot rupee, which touched a low of 43.45 per dollar in intra-day deals, closed around 43.43 per dollar as against 43.37 per dollar yesterday.

Sentiment was bullish in the government securities market today.

Lower inflation, stabilising crude prices and less state government borrowing of Rs 7,300 crore led to buying demand from nationalised banks.

While prices of long and medium term papers rose by 20-25 paise, short-term gilts rose by 10-15 paise.

The 10-year, 7.38% 2,015 bond closed at an yield of 7.16%, and the 12- year paper closed at 7.35%.

Call rates inched up to 5.20% following rush for funds by banks to meet the reporting Friday requirement. Reverse repo bids declined to around Rs 11,000 crore.

The corporate bonds market witnessed a flurry of trades with volume going up to Rs 200-300 crore as against nil trades since the last two days following the peaceful resolution of the stamp duty issue.