Recovering from its initial losses, Indian rupee ended stronger against dollar on Friday, owing to dollar sale by exporters and banks. Sentiments remained positive as India's exports grew 8.32 per cent to $24.01 billion in May, mainly on account of robust performance by sectors like petroleum, chemicals, engineering goods as well as gems and jewellery. Some support also came with the report that India has moved up six places from 66th in last year to reach 60th position in this year's Global Innovation Index (GII). However, gains were muted as the current account deficit (CAD) soared to $3.4 billion or 0.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, from $0.3 billion a year ago. On the global front, US Dollar recorded a two-week high against major global currencies backed by positive economic data.
Finally, the rupee ended at 64.43, 11 paise stronger from its previous close of 64.54 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 64.74 and 64.40 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 64.58 and for Euro stood at 72.04 on June 16, 2017. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 58.05, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 82.51. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
