Indian rupee, strengthened to eleven month high on Friday after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) swept the 16th Lok Sabha election, by securing 282 seats out of 543 elected seats. The rupee, however, failed to retain all the gains made during the session on the back of late hour profit-booking in local equities as well dollar buying by state run banks on behalf of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Besides the session, the week also turned out to be blissful for the Indian currency. On the global front, dollar held steady against major currencies on Friday as selling of the currency faded with benchmark U.S. yields stabilizing at their lowest levels in six months, although the greenback faces further weakness if yields resume their decline.
Finally, the rupee ended at 58.83, stronger by 45 paise from its previous close of 59.28 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 59.10 and 58.62 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 58.86 and for Euro stood at 80.71 on May 16, 2014. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 57.97, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 98.8217. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
