Rupee strengthens on fresh selling of US currency by banks and exporters

Indian rupee strengthened against dollar in early deals on Thursday on fresh selling of the US currency by banks and exporters. Besides, the dollar’s weakness against some currencies overseas, driven by a survey from the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) showing activity in the vast US services sector slowed to a near two-year low in January, adding another layer of uncertainty on the Fed's near-term policy path, too supported the rupee's uptrend. Furthermore, rebound in domestic stock markets also helped the domestic unit to strengthen against the dollar.

The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 67.80, stronger by 27 paise from its previous close of 68.07 on Wednesday. The currency touched a high and low of 67.86 and 67.76 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 68.18 and for Euro stood at 74.45 on February 03, 2016. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 56.98, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 98.3192. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.     

(RBI-Reference Rate)