Indian rupee ended lower against dollar on Friday, amid weakness seen in the domestic equity markets post Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut the repo rate. In the wake of COVID-19, the RBI has reduced the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) by 40 basis points (bps) to 4.0 per cent from 4.40 per cent with immediate effect. Traders remained cautious as India Ratings (Ind-Ra) expects most sectors to experience varying degrees of revenue contraction during FY21 due to demand and supply disruptions caused by the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic. Meanwhile, rising coronavirus cases in the country and US-China trade tensions weighed on the local unit. On the global front, dollar gained against major peers on Friday as worries about rising diplomatic tensions between the United States and China supported safe-haven demand for the greenback.
Finally, the rupee ended at 75.95, 34 paise weaker from its previous close of 75.61 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 75.95 and 75.71 respectively. The reference rate for the dollar stood at 75.77 and for Euro stood at 83.03 on May 21, 2020. While the reference rate for the Yen stood at 70.34, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 92.38.
