Rupee climbs near two months high

01 Jul 2011 Evaluate

The Indian rupee ascended to its highest level in nearly two months on Friday, boosted by robust dollar inflows, higher local shares and strong Asian peers. However, dollar strength has restricted some of the gains of the domestic unit. Further, too dollar demand from oil refiners could weigh on the rupee since India imports more than 70 percent of its crude oil needs and domestic oil refiners are the largest buyers of dollars in the local forex market. Indian shares open higher post a seventh day of gains, following a pick-up in foreign fund buying, on improved investor sentiment since the fears of a default by Greece receded. The European Union and International Monetary Fund approved 78 billion euros or $111.4 billion in additional austerity and accelerated asset sale to help Greece differ bail out.

The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 44.60, stronger by 9 paise from its previous close on 44.69/70 on Thursday. It has touched a high and low of 44.6500 and 44.5625 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India's reference rate for the Dollar stood at 44.72 and for Euro it stood at 64.79 on June 30, 2011. While, the RBI's reference rate for the Yen stood at 55.59 and the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 71.9567. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.