Indian rupee strengthened against the dollar in morning trade on Friday on increased selling of the American currency by banks and exporters. Besides, strong foreign fund inflows, and weakness of the dollar against other currencies overseas too boosted the rupee value against the dollar. Rupee improved further on higher opening in the domestic equity market after the long-pending indirect tax reform Goods and Services Tax (GST) Constitutional Amendment bill was passed by Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Though, traders turned cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) bi-monthly policy on 9 August, restricting rupee gains. The central bank is expected to keep rates unchanged for now as CPI (consumer price index) inflation at around 5.8% in June is close to the upper end of RBI’s target of 4% (+/- 2%). On the global front, the dollar held steady on Friday with its near-term fortunes riding on whether US jobs data will rekindle expectations for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this year.
The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 66.82, stronger by 10 paise from its previous close of 66.92 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 66.8950 and 66.80 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 66.94 and for Euro stood at 74.60 on August 4, 2016. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 65.95, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 89.07.The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
| Date | 1US$ | 1GBP |
| August 04, 2016 | 66.9447 | 89.0699 |
| August 03, 2016 | 66.9368 | 89.0126 |
