Indian rupee ended significantly higher against dollar on Tuesday, on persistent selling of the American currency by exporters. Rupee throughout the day remained positive, taking support with a private survey showing that activity in India's huge service sector accelerated in February, partly due to an increase in domestic new business which induced firms to maintain a solid hiring pace. Some optimism also came in with India’s chief economic adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian’s statement that India’s next government will have to bring in land, labour and financial sector reforms to improve the productivity of the manufacturing sector and boost economic growth. Moreover, a spectacular relief rally in local equities gave the uptrend some momentum. On the global front, dollar held near a two-week high against its key rivals on Tuesday, underpinned by a resilient economy and a flagging euro ahead of an upcoming European Central Bank policy meeting.
Finally, the rupee ended at 70.49, 43 paise stronger from its previous close of 70.92 on Friday. The currency touched a high and low of 70.98 and 70.43 respectively. The reference rate for the dollar stood at 70.760 and for Euro stood at 80.15 on March 5, 2019. While the reference rate for the Yen stood at 63.23, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 93.11.
