Continuing its uptrend for the second straight session, Indian rupee ended stronger against dollar on Monday due to sustained selling of the US currency by exporters and banks. Sentiments remained up-beat with the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the demonetisation process is almost complete and it has been the smoothest possible replacement of currency anywhere in the world. Some support also came with report that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India grew 18% during 2016 to touch $46 billion. The main sectors, which attracted the highest foreign inflows, include services, telecom, trading, computer hardware & software and automobile. Besides, the dollar weakness against some currencies overseas supported the rupee but weak trade in the local equity market capped some gains. On the global front, dollar slipped against yen on Monday, as investors looked ahead to U.S. President Donald Trump's speech to Congress this week for details of promised tax cuts and infrastructure spending.
Finally, the rupee ended at 66.70, 12 paise stronger from its previous close of 66.82 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 66.77 and 66.64 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 66.72 and for Euro stood at 70.51 on February 27, 2017. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 59.51, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 82.89.The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
