Extending weakness for the third day in a row, Indian rupee fell sharply against US dollar on Thursday as concern over US President Donald Trump spurred a sell-off in emerging market currencies. Investors failed to get solace with a senior UN economic official’s statement that the demonetisation policy is not expected to have a long term impact on domestic demand in India, which is projected to clock a 7.9 percent growth in fiscal 2018. The domestic currency started on a weak note and increased losses to end near intraday lows. Losses in local equity market added to the pessimistic environment of the currency. Besides, dollar’s weakness against other currency overseas too failed to cast any impact on the rupee.
Finally, the rupee ended at 64.83, 68 paise weaker from its previous close of 64.15 on Wednesday. The currency touched a high and low of 64.90 and 64.32 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 64.34 and for Euro stood at 71.62 on May 18, 2017. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 57.80, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 83.30. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
