Indian rupee strengthened against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday on fresh selling of the American currency by exporters and banks amid higher opening in the domestic equity market. On the global front, the dollar stood near a two-month peak against a basket of currencies on Wednesday after robust US housing data supported the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in the near term. In US, Commerce Department reported that new home sales during April surged 16.6% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 619,000 units, an eight year high.
The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 67.54, stronger by 22 paise from its previous close of 67.76 on Tuesday. The currency touched a high and low of 67.60 and 67.50 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 67.70 and for Euro stood at 75.93 on May 24, 2016. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 61.97, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 98.0654. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
| Date | 1US$ | 1GBP |
| May 24, 2016 | 67.7060 | 98.0654 |
| May 23, 2016 | 67.3492 | 97.7641 |
(RBI-Reference Rate)
