Mumbai: Rates at the call money market shot up to 15 per cent on 21 September. Earlier in the day, call rates had opened at a range of 9 to 9.5 per cent. But, strong demand by banks that were short on their positions in the day, being a Friday and a reporting day for the banks, sent the call rates soaring.

Also, there was pressure on liquidity owing to advance tax outflows and intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the forex market. Such high call rates have been reached after a long time.

During the day, the RBI injected Rs1,410 crore in 16 bids at 8.5 per cent through its reverse repo auction and that cooled the market a bit.

The rupee remained within range. The demand was strong but support from state-run banks and few foreign banks kept the rupee under control. The rupee closed at Rs 48.01.

Government Securities (G Secs) remained weak due to the high call rate. G Sec prices recovered later in the day following RBIs announcement that it would again purchase securities through its purchase window on 24 September.