Indian rupee, protracting its previous session’s depreciating streak, crashed below the psychological 56 mark, to hit a fresh week low on account of strong dollar demand from banks and importers. Further, European Central Bank's announcement of no immediate measures to fight the debt crisis, besides weighing on euro, also took its toll from local unit, as this sapped the global risk appetite for emerging markets currencies. Moreover, sluggish equity performance combined with feeble regional counterparts, also added to the downside trigger of the Indian currency. The European Central Bank sketched out its side of the deal yesterday, offering to buy Italy’s and Spain’s bonds on the market as long as the euro governments’ bailout fund makes purchases directly from the two countries’ treasuries and ties them to tough conditions.
The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 56.09, weaker by 24 paise from its previous close of 55.85 on Thursday. The currency, so far, has touched a high and low of 56.18 and 56.06 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at Rs 55.77 and for Euro it stood at Rs 68.31 on August 2, 2012. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 71.12, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 86.7492. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
| Date | 1US$ | 1GBP |
August 2, 2012 | 55.77 | 86.7492 |
August 1, 2012 | 55.48 | 86.9411 |