Indian rupee ended considerably stronger against dollar on Friday on increased selling of the American currency by exporters and banks. Traders took encouragement with Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar’s statement that India will emerge as a model for the rest of the world once it completes economic, political and social transitions. Investors even overlooked report that America’s bilateral trade deficit with four major countries, including India, narrowed in the first three quarters of 2017 as compared to the previous year. According to the report, India’s growth has slowed due to the effects of its structural economic reforms. Besides, abundant capital inflows into domestic equities gave the uptrend some momentum. However, dollar’s strength against major global currencies overseas restricted the local unit’s further up move. On the global front, euro slipped on Friday as investors trim positions before a big week for global currency markets from a European politics perspective.
Finally, the rupee ended at 64.73, 30 paise stronger from its previous close of 65.03 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 65.10 and 64.95 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 64.82 and for Euro stood at 79.76 on February 23, 2018. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 60.59, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 90.40. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
