Indian rupee gained ground against dollar and ended higher on Tuesday, due to selling of the US currency by exporters and banks. Market participants drew some support with report that a steep rise in output of cement and fertilisers pushed up the growth of the core sector to 5.3% in February even as refinery products, electricity, coal, and natural gas production made the output of the infrastructure industries grow slower than 6.1% in January. Additional support also came with the report that Direct tax collections in 2017-18 at Rs 9.95 lakh crore, exceeded the revised budgetary target of Rs 9.8 lakh crore for FY18. Also, 6.84 crore income tax returns filed in the year against 5.43 crore in the previous year. Besides, last hour recovery in local equity markets also influenced the rupee sentiment. On the global front, dollar rebounded from an early fall on Tuesday, on concerns about US-China trade tensions on Tuesday, as foreign exchange markets appeared to shrug off worries that the dispute could damage global growth.
Finally, the rupee ended at 65.02, 16 paise stronger from its previous close of 65.18 on Wednesday. The currency touched a high and low of 65.13 and 64.98 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 65.02 and for Euro stood at 80.09 on April 03, 2018. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 61.31, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 91.45. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
