Indian rupee strengthened for second consecutive session on Monday, on increased selling of the American currency by exporters and banks. Sentiments remained optimistic with Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia’s statement that inflation will fall by 2 percent on an implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) and will create buoyancy in the economy. Some support also came with report that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into the country touched a new high of $60.08 billion in 2016-17. Inflows grew by 8 percent over the previous high of $55.6 billion posted in 2015-16. Besides, positive momentum in the domestic equities and continuous foreign capital inflows too supported the rupee. However, US dollar’s strength against major global currencies overseas capped the rupee’s gain. On the global front, dollar steadied close to six-month lows against a basket of currencies on Monday, as investors took stock of a week of political turmoil in the United States and a resurgent euro zone economy.
Finally, the rupee ended at 64.55, 9 paise stronger from its previous close of 64.64 on Friday. The currency touched a high and low of 64.63 and 64.43 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 64.56 and for Euro stood at 72.23 on May 22, 2017. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 57.98, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 83.95. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
