Indian rupee, after making a weak start, recouped most of its losses and was trading flat on Friday tailing gains of local equities. Additionally, the local unit also drew some solace from Finance Minister’s positive statements on fiscal deficit. Arun Jaitley highlighted the likelihood on improvement in the fiscal position in January-March quarter on a likely pick up in tax revenue realization, receipts from spectrum auction and stake sale of PSUs. However, gains of dollar against the basket of other major currencies also weighed on the sentiment. On the global front, dollar hit its highest level in nearly nine years against a basket of currencies on Friday, drawing strength from the US economy’s outperformance and the diverging outlook for monetary policies among major economies.
The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 63.34, hardly changed from its previous close of 63.35 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 63.49 and 63.32 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 63.32 and for Euro stood at 76.59 on January 01, 2014. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 52.91, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 98.6356. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
