Indian rupee strengthened against the US dollar on Tuesday, on persistent selling of the American currency by exporters and banks. Besides, dollar’s weakness against some other currencies overseas supported the rupee sentiment. Some support also came with Central Board of Direct Taxes’ (CBDT) report of a 25 percent increase in the number of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) filed in the current fiscal, on the backdrop of economic reform, including demonetisation and the Income Tax Department’s (ITD) Operation Clean Money. On the global front, the dollar inched down slightly in Asian trading on Tuesday, but maintained most of the gains it made on last week’s robust employment data that kept hope alive that the US Federal Reserve could still increase interest rates this year.
Finally, the rupee ended at 63.63, 17 paise stronger from its previous close of 63.80 on Monday. The currency touched a high and low of 63.78 and 63.62 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 63.73 and for Euro stood at 75.28 on August 08, 2017. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 57.63, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 83.14. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
