Indian rupee ended weaker against dollar on Monday due to heavy demand from banks and importers for American currency amid a flat close at the domestic equity market. The rupee further plummeted against the dollar as investors turned cautious ahead of the 2-days US Fed Reserve meeting which will start from January 26. The sentiments were under pressure after Moody’s poll stated that the greatest challenge facing the Indian economy is exposure to external shocks such as interest rate hike in the US and slowdown in China and the risk has risen since last year. On the global front, dollar edged down against a basket of currencies on as renewed selling on oil markets drove investors into their current safe havens of choice, the euro and yen, while weakening the currencies of major crude exporters.
Finally, the rupee ended at 67.83, 20 paise weaker from its previous close of 67.63 on Friday. The currency touched a high and low of 67.84 and 67.53 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 67.64 and for Euro stood at 73.12 on January 25, 2016. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 56.93, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 96.7360. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
