Caught in a downward spiral for the third straight session, Indian rupee ended considerably weaker against the US dollar on Wednesday, on account of heavy foreign fund outflows and month-end dollar demand. Investors remained cautious with report that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) expecting the RBI to go for another round of rate cut in the latter part of 2017-18 in view of sluggish economic activities but does not see possibility of any major fiscal stimulus. Some anxiety also spread among the investors as India has been ranked as the 40th most competitive economy -- slipping one place from last year's ranking -- on the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness index, which is topped by Switzerland. Moreover, the fall in the rupee was also triggered by dollar’s appreciation overseas against a basket of major currencies along with extremely bearish local equity markets. On the global front, US dollar rose against yen on Wednesday, on expectation of a US rate hike by the end of this year.
Finally, the rupee ended at 65.70, 26 paise weaker from its previous close of 65.44 on Tuesday. The currency touched a high and low of 65.75 and 65.35 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 65.69 and for Euro stood at 77.36 on September 27, 2017. While the RBI's reference rate for the Yen stood at 58.40, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 88.14. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
