Indian rupee strengthened against the US dollar in early trade on Friday on fresh selling of the American currency by exporters and bankers on account of lower trade deficit in the last fiscal. Reports showed that India’s current account deficit (CAD) narrowed sharply to $0.3 billion or 0.1 percent of GDP in the fourth quarter of 2015-16 from $7.1 billion or 1.3 percent in the third quarter on account of lower trade gap, too helped to strengthen rupee. Furthermore, a higher opening in the domestic equity market and weakness of the dollar against some other currencies overseas also supported the rupee. On the global front, the yen held near multi-year highs against the dollar and euro early on Friday, having surged after the Bank of Japan refrained from adding fresh stimulus, while sterling recovered ground as the killing of a pro-European Union lawmaker was expected to boost sentiment for the ‘Remain’ camp in Britain's EU referendum.
The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 67.15, stronger by 13 paise from its previous close of 67.28 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 67.18 and 67.1225 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 67.20 and for Euro stood at 75.81 on June 16, 2016. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 64.55, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 95.2388. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
| Date | 1US$ | 1GBP |
| June 16, 2016 | 67.2068 | 95.2388 |
| June 15, 2016 | 67.1596 | 95.1114 |
