Indian rupee pared some early losses and are trading marginally lower against dollar, on the back of positive trade data for February 2013. Meanwhile, country’s February exports rose by 4.25% from a year earlier to $26.3 billion, while imports rose 2.6% to $41.2 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $14.9 billion. However, dollar strengthening against US currency overseas due to remarkable growth in US employment, pressurized local unit to an extent. Continued dollar selling by exporter and volatile domestic equity markets, limited the rupee’s upmove. Meanwhile, investors were awaiting industrial production data for January, before making any strong positions.
The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 54.33, stronger by 4 paise from its previous close of 54.29 on Friday. The currency has touched a high and low of 54.52 and 54.30 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at Rs 54.40 and for Euro it stood at Rs 71.24 on March 8, 2013. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 57.06, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 81.5672. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.
Date | 1US$ | 1GBP |
March 8, 2013 | 54.40 | 81.5672 |
March 7, 2013 | 54.73 | 82.1418 |
(RBI-reference rate)
