Indian rupee ended weaker against dollar on Thursday on fresh bouts of dollar demand from importers and banks. Besides, massive losses of local equities also added to the pessimistic environment. However, dollar's weakness against other currencies overseas after the US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged, capped the rupee losses. Investors remained cautious with the policy stance by the US Fed on global growth worries and Brexit fears. Moreover, investors also remained anxious over report that India’s merchandise exports maintained its stubborn trend for the eighteenth straight month in May, although the rate of fall was lowest since November 2014. Exports contracted 0.79 per cent to $22.17 billion in May, against $ 22.34 billion in May 2015. On the global front, yen surged broadly on Thursday after the Bank of Japan held off from expanding its monetary stimulus.
Finally, the rupee ended 67.28, 13 paise weaker from its previous close at 67.15 on Wednesday. The currency touched a high and low of 67.33 and 67.13 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 67.20 and for Euro stood at 75.81 on June 16, 2016. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 64.55, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 95.2388. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
