Indian rupee strengthened against the US dollar on Tuesday, tracking firm domestic equities following a steep fall in crude oil prices. Further, US Federal Reserve’s emergency interest rate cut and the Reserve Bank of India's liquidity enhancing measures outweighed the heightened fears of COVID-19 cases. There are currently 182,605 confirmed cases and 7,171 deaths from the corona virus outbreak as of March 16, 2020. Of this, 79,881 have been recovered globally. The number of corona virus cases in India has increased to 129. Meanwhile, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold equity shares worth Rs 3,809.93 crore on Monday, exchange data showed. On the global front, the safe-haven Japanese yen ticked down and some risk currencies won a brief reprieve on signs of more economic support from policymakers, though choppy conditions on Tuesday underlined fragile confidence in markets frazzled by days of turbulence.
The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 73.99, stronger by 26 paise from its previous close of 74.25 on Monday. The currency touched a high and low of 74.1850 and 73.8600 respectively. The reference rate for the dollar stood at 74.06 and for Euro stood at 82.95 on March 13, 2020. While the reference rate for the Yen stood at 70.21, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 93.00.
