Snapping its three-day winning streak, Indian rupee ended weaker against dollar on Thursday, due to demand for greenback by banks and importers. Additionally, weak trade in domestic equity markets mainly pressurised the home unit. Traders failed to get relief with World Bank’s report which highlighted that India’s economy is expected to grow 7.3% in the next financial year and accelerate to 7.5% in 2019-20, bottoming out from the impact of demonetization and GST, even as it highlighted private investments and exports as the two lagging engines of growth. The World Bank said it expected Indian economy to clock a growth rate of 6.7% in the current financial year. On the global front, dollar fell against yen on Thursday as trade tensions encouraged investors to buy the Japanese currency. Market participants are concerned about a US shift towards increased protectionism under Donald Trump's administration.
Finally, the rupee ended at 64.93, 10 paise weaker from its previous close of 64.83 on Wednesday. The currency touched a high and low of 64.98 and 64.79 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 64.93 and for Euro stood at 80.32 on March 15, 2018. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 61.27, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 90.72. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
