Continuing its rising streak for the second straight day, Indian rupee ended considerably stronger against dollar on Monday due to sustained selling of the US currency by exporters and banks. Local currency got some support with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley last week said that the government, in tandem with the Reserve Bank of India, is working on a radical proposal to resolve the issue of bad loans in the banking system. These will help to attract more foreign investments in the country. As per the provisional data released by the stock exchanges, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 543.35 crore on last Friday. However, heavy losses in the domestic equity market capped the rupee gains. On the global front, U.S. dollar fell to its lowest level against yen since late November as the House Republicans’ failure to pass its long-promised health-care bill gave investors another cue to buy other major currencies.
Finally, the rupee ended at 65.04, 37 paise stronger from its previous close of 65.41 on Friday. The currency touched a high and low of 65.26 and 65.03 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 65.08 and for Euro stood at 70.67 on March 27, 2017. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 59.08, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 81.64.The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
