Indian rupee surrendered its early gains and ended weaker against dollar on last trading session of the week on sustained dollar demand from importers. Besides, negative equity market also hit the rupee sentiment. This is the seventh day of consecutive losses for the rupee. Investors even overlooked the report of Moody's Investors Service, which forecasted Indian economy to grow 7.5 percent in the current and next year and stated that the expansion is primarily driven by rising consumption and sustained improvement in private investment was needed to maintain the momentum. On the global front, euro strengthened against the other major currencies on Friday amid risk appetite, as oil and metal prices rose and investors turned their attention to the G7 meeting of central bankers and finance ministers that could provide some clarity over the conduct of global monetary and fiscal policies.
Finally, the rupee ended at 67.45, 9 paise weaker from its previous close at 67.36 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 67.50 and 67.31 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 67.40 and for Euro stood at 75.54 on May 20, 2016. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 61.17, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 98.4555. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
