Rupee ends substantially weak on Tuesday

Snapping its eight-days gaining streak, Indian rupee ended weaker against dollar on Tuesday on month-end demand for the US currency from importers, tracking losses in the Asian currencies markets. Investors also overlooked the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the rolling out the ambitious Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime is ‘certainly’ doable in 2016 and he is in ‘continuous touch’ with the Congress party in a bid to persuade them to cooperate. On the global front, euro held its gains on Tuesday, after a European Central Bank (ECB) official hinted at another wave of stimulus.

Finally, the rupee ended at 66.39, 19 paise weaker against its previous close of 66.20 on Monday. The currency touched a high and low of 66.41 and 66.25 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 66.37 and for Euro stood at 72.84 on December 29, 2015. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 55.16 the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 98.9112. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.