Indian rupee strengthened against the US dollar in morning trade on Monday due to a higher opening of the domestic equity market. However, some gains were capped tracking losses in its Asian peers, following the bigger-than-estimated increase in US payrolls data that revived talk of the US Federal Reserve rate hike this year, and ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) bi-monthly policy on Tuesday. Outgoing RBI governor Raghuram Rajan will likely choose to leave policy rates unchanged on Tuesday, leaving it to his successor to decide on future rate cuts.
The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 66.74, stronger by 4 paise from its previous close of 66.78 on Friday. The currency touched a high and low of 66.83 and 66.7350 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 66.81and for Euro stood at 74.45 on August 5, 2016. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 66.13, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 87.75.The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
| Date | 1US$ | 1GBP |
| August 05, 2016 | 66.8141 | 87.7470 |
| August 04, 2016 | 66.9447 | 89.0699 |
