Indian rupee, snapping nine consecutive sessions winning streak, depreciated on Tuesday due to dollar demand from banks and importers amid continued capital outflows. Sentiments remained dampened with Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the proposed changes in the regime for issuing H-1B visas for skilled workers by the US government will have an impact on Indian companies and the Commerce Ministry will soon hold a meeting with the industry to discuss its strategy for dealing with it. Besides, losses in the equity markets along with dollar strengthens overseas too weighed on rupee sentiments. Meanwhile, traders remained cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) bi-monthly monetary policy committee meeting on Wednesday. On the global front, dollar shot higher against other major currencies on Tuesday, helped by hawkish comments from a Federal Reserve official who emphasized a March rate hike is possible.
Finally, the rupee ended at 67.42, 20 paise weaker from its previous close of 67.22 on Monday. The currency touched a high and low of 67.44 and 67.29 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 67.36 and for Euro stood at 72.07 on February 07, 2017. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 60.26, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 83.94.The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
