Indian rupee weakened against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday due to fresh demand for the American currency from importers. Rupee fell further, tracking the weakness in the Asian currencies market. Asian currencies dropped marginally as investors are unlikely to have huge positions before the US Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan meetings next week. However, dollar’s weakness against some currencies overseas and a higher opening in the domestic equity market restricted the loss. On the global front, the dollar gave up some of its recent gains against the yen on Wednesday, but it held close to four-month highs against a basket of currencies thanks to strong US data and rising expectations that the Bank of Japan will take additional easing steps.
The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 67.19, weaker by 8 paise from its previous close of 67.11 on Tuesday. The currency touched a high and low of 67.20 and 67.14 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 67.15 and for Euro stood at 74.34 on July 19, 2016. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 63.35, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 88.72. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
| Date | 1US$ | 1GBP |
| July 19, 2016 | 67.1462 | 88.7203 |
| July 18, 2016 | 67.1015 | 88.6881 |
