Indian rupee appreciated for the second consecutive session against dollar on Wednesday on continued selling of American currency by banks and exporters amid mixed cues from Asian currency markets and ahead of the outcome of the two-day Fed meeting that concludes later in the day. Besides, strong trade in the equity market too supported the domestic currency. Sentiments remained up-beat with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the government is willing to scrap the proposed 1% additional tax levy under the goods and services tax (GST) regime, but ruled out putting the new tax rate under GST in the Constitution amendment bill itself or setting up a dispute resolution panel. On the global front, Euro was little changed versus its major currency counterparts after today’s Flash Markit Eurozone PMI printed mixed figures. The Eurozone PMI Composite Output Index came at 54.0, below the prior and expected figure of 54.2.
Finally, the rupee ended at 66.73 20 paise stronger against its previous close of 66.93 on Tuesday. The currency touched a high and low of 66.92 and 66.71 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 66.84 and for Euro stood at 73.15 on December 16, 2015. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 54.84 the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 100.5777. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
