Indian rupee extending its weakness for the third straight day, depreciated against dollar on Wednesday due to persistent dollar demand from importers and banks. Besides, dollar’s strength against other currencies overseas on expectations of a US interest rate hike too weighed on the sentiments of the rupee. Sentiments came under pressure after the Asian Development Bank (ADB) lowered its growth projections for India for 2015-16 to 7.4 per cent, from the 7.8 per cent earlier, citing weak monsoon, poor external demand and inability of the government to push reforms. Though rally in the local equity market limited further slide of Indian currency. On the global front, Euro gained against US Dollar after the release of the latest manufacturing and services data for the Eurozone and its largest economies.
Finally, the rupee ended at 65.99, 10 paise weaker from its previous close of 65.88 on Tuesday. The currency touched a high and low of 66.12 and 65.89 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 65.96 and for Euro stood at 73.37 on September 23, 2015. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 54.92, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 101.1908. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
