Indian rupee trimmed all of its early losses and managed to end marginally higher against the American currency on Monday, due to increased selling of the American currency by exporters and banks. Traders took some support with report that India’s merchandise exports grew to a six-month high of 20.18% in the month of May 2018, boosted by a rise in receipts of petroleum, engineering and pharmaceutical products. However, gains remained capped as anxiety remained among the traders with report showing that India’s trade deficit widened to $14.62 billion in May 2018 as against $13.84 billion in May 2017, the highest in nearly four months mainly because of rising oil imports. On the global front, dollar edged up towards a seven-month high on Monday as investors bet the United States and China would avoid a full-blown trade war, although tensions between the two slowed its gains.
Finally, the rupee ended at 67.98, 4 paise stronger from its previous close of 68.02 on Friday. The currency touched a high and low of 68.16 and 67.94 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 68.02 and for Euro stood at 78.85 on June 18, 2018. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 61.55, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 90.24. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
