Indian rupee ended substantially stronger against dollar on Friday due to selling of American currency by banks and exporters. Besides, dollar weakness against some other currencies overseas added to the rupee gains. Some support also came with report that net direct tax collection grew by 14.8 per cent to Rs 1.42 lakh crore at the end of first quarter on account of surge in advance tax payments. As per the finance ministry the net direct tax collection represents 14.5 per cent of the total Budget Estimates of direct taxes of Rs 9.8 lakh crore for 2017-18. The domestic currency remained unaffected by the weak trade in domestic equity market. On the global front, dollar hit a seven-week high against yen on Friday after the Bank of Japan increased its purchases of government bonds, expanding monetary policy at a time when other major central banks are moving towards tightening.
Finally, the rupee ended at 64.59, 18 paise stronger from its previous close of 64.77 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 64.75 and 64.57 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 64.73 and for Euro stood at 73.88 on July 07, 2017. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 56.94, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 83.88. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
