Indian rupee ended flat against dollar on Wednesday on increased month-end demand for the US currency from importers. Further, weak trade in the equity market also hit the rupee sentiment. However, weakness in the US dollar against some currencies in the global market capped the rupee fall. Investors remained cautious with World Bank chief economist Kaushik Basu’s statement that the Indian economy is expected to grow at 7 to 7.5 per cent in 2016. Until October, the World Bank retained India’s growth forecast at 7.5 per cent for 2015-16 and expected it to be 7.8 per cent in 2016-17 and 7.9 per cent in 2017-18. On the global front, dollar slipped against the euro and yen on Wednesday as another retreat in oil prices hit sentiment.
Finally, the rupee ended flat at its previous close of 66.39 on Tuesday. The currency touched a high and low of 66.49 and 66.36 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 66.42 and for Euro stood at 72.60 on December 30, 2015. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 55.17 the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 98.5471. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
