Extending its southward journey for third straight session, Indian rupee settled at fresh all-time low of 71-mark against US dollar on Friday, following bouts of month-end dollar demand from banks and importers. Sentiments remained down-beat with the International Energy Agency (IEA) stating that crude oil prices are likely to rise further in 2018 and may remain above $75 a barrel for some time, owing to the geo-political situations across the world - including Iran sanctions and drop in Venezuela production. Caution also crept in ahead of the release of the gross domestic product (GDP) data for April-June quarter today. Market participants even overlooked a private report that the economic growth is expected to rise to 7.6% in the April-June quarter of 2018-19 from a sub-6% figure in the year-ago period mainly due to a low-base effect. On the global front, euro fell on Friday on anxiety about an escalating trade conflict between the U.S. and the European Union.
Finally, the rupee ended at 71.00, 27 paise weaker from its previous close of 70.73 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 71.00 and 70.85 respectively. The reference rate for the dollar stood at 70.92 and for Euro stood at 82.83 on August 31, 2018. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 63.91, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 92.35. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
