Indian rupee ended higher against dollar on Monday, tracking positive trend in domestic equities and weakening American currency in the overseas market. Traders took a note of Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s statement that India should look at converting the world’s ‘hatred’ for China amid the coronavirus pandemic into an economic opportunity for itself by attracting large scale foreign investments. Market participants overlooked India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) revised its FY21 economic growth forecast for the country further down to 1.9 percent, lowest in the last 29 years, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. According to Ind-Ra, Indian economy had registered a GDP growth of 1.1 percent in financial year 1991-92. On the global front, yen edged higher against dollar on Monday after the Bank of Japan expanded stimulus to help companies hit by the coronavirus crisis while the pound rose against the dollar and euro on optimism Britain may soon ease a month-long lockdown.
Finally, the rupee ended at 76.25, 21 paise stronger from its previous close of 76.46 on Friday. The currency touched a high and low of 76.34 and 76.05 respectively. The reference rate for the dollar stood at 76.41 and for Euro stood at 82.21 on April 24, 2020. While the reference rate for the Yen stood at 71.00, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 94.22.
