Indian rupee appreciated on Tuesday, tailing gains of local equities after foreign investors made their biggest single-day purchase of local stocks in nearly three weeks. Further, while absence of any central bank intervention also aided the sentiment. Additionally, sentiment also got a fillip after business activity in Indian manufacturing sector expanded in June at its quickest pace since February driven by higher domestic and export order flows. The HSBC Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), a headline index designed to measure the overall health of the manufacturing sector, rose to 51.5 in the month of June from 51.4 in May. Nevertheless, Indian currency gyrated in tight range on account of prevailing caution ahead of the budget on July 10 with the geo-political situation in Iraq worsening. On the global front, dollar wallowed close to seven-week lows against a basket of major currencies on Tuesday, with the greenback pressured by doubts about the strength of the U.S. economic recovery.
Finally, the rupee ended at 60.07, stronger by 12 paise from its previous close of 60.19 on Monday. The currency touched a high and low of 60.20 and 60.04 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 60.13 and for Euro stood at 82.28 on July 01, 2014. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 59.27, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 102.8343. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
