Indian rupee, after making a weak start, recouped all its losses and ended marginally stronger on Thursday on fresh selling of American currency by banks and exporters. Local currency got some support with the report that a normal monsoon this year should continue to revive rural demand and allow the RBI to cut rates by 25 bps in August. According to the report, rural demand is already reviving and the autumn kharif farm income has jumped by 26 percent last year. Besides, positive gains in the equity market along with dollar struggled against some other currencies overseas too supported the rupee. On the global front, dollar inched lower against a basket of major currencies on Thursday, suffering from a solid performance by the euro before the first round of French presidential elections and from an improvement in sentiment towards Britain's pound this week.
Finally, the rupee ended at 64.56, 1 paise stronger from its previous close of 64.57 on Wednesday. The currency touched a high and low of 64.72 and 64.56 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 64.63 and for Euro stood at 69.33 on April 20, 2017. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 59.35, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 82.80. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
