Rupee appreciates to two and half month high; breaches psychological ‘54/$’ mark

18 Jan 2013 Evaluate

Indian rupee, protracting previous session’s euphoria, has strengthened to two and half months high level on Friday, on account of sparkling gains of local equities after Oil Marketing Companies (OMC’s) hiked the price of diesel by 45 paise excluding taxes, a move that could help the government reduce its vast subsidy bill. Meanwhile, based on the current prices and volumes, the decrease in the under-recoveries on annual basis on HSD (diesel) shall be approximately Rs 15,000 crore for OMCs (oil marketing companies) as a whole, a key positive for Indian currency. Besides this, broad gains in other Asian currencies and a risk-on mood in global markets also aided the rupee. Meanwhile, dollar hit a 2-1/2 year high against the yen on Friday, supported by expectations that the Bank of Japan to take bold monetary easing steps next week.

The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 53.96, stronger by 43 paise from its previous close of 54.39 on Thursday. The currency has touched a high and low of 54.16 and 53.86 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at Rs 54.64 and for Euro it stood at Rs 72.65 on January 17, 2013. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 61.65, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 87.4558. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.

Date

1US$

1GBP

January 17, 2013

54.6487.4558

January 16, 2013

54.82

87.9902

(RBI-reference rate)

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