Rupee trades little changed on Friday; month end dollar demand restricts uptrend

Indian rupee, after making a cautious start, continued to tread water on Friday tailing the weakness of local equity markets, while incremental dollar demand from importers to fulfill their month-end obligations also was restricting any kind of upside of local currency. However, sustained foreign fund inflows into the stock and debt markets continued to aid the sentiment. Foreign Institutional Investors in previous trading session invested a total of Rs 839.38 crore and Rs 839.38 in equity and debt segment respectively. On the global front, dollar held gains versus the yen on Friday and the euro stood steady after rebounding from an eight-month low against the greenback as data painted a brighter picture of the U.S. and eurozone economies.

The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 60.13, little changed from its previous close of 60.11 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 60.13 and 60.17 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 60.00 and for Euro stood at 80.67 on July 24, 2014. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 59.13, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 102.1894. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.

(RBI-Reference Rate)