Indian rupee pared all of its gains and ended marginally weaker against dollar on Friday, on the back of heavy capital outflows from the domestic equity market. Investors remained worried with a report that India’s fiscal deficit, for nine months of Financial Year 2018, stands at Rs 6,20,949 crore, overshooting the budgeted estimate (BE) target by 113.6%. The government has estimated Rs 5,46,532 crore of fiscal deficit for FY18 which during the same period of the last year stood negative at 93.9%. Besides, the dollar rose to a position of strength overseas too made the rupee weaker. On the global front, dollar ticked up against a basket of currencies, ahead of hotly anticipated US non-farm payrolls data later, which will be closely watched for clues on the outlook for US interest rates.
Finally, the rupee ended at 64.06, 4 paise weaker from its previous close of 64.02 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 64.19 and 63.70 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 64.07 and for Euro stood at 80.03 on February 02, 2018. While the RBI's reference rate for the Yen stood at 58.36, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 91.33. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
