Rupee strengthens against dollar in early deals on Friday

Indian rupee strengthened against dollar in early deals on Friday as a strong opening in the domestic equity market gave rupee a big support, but dollar’s strength against other currencies limited the gains. Traders are cautious ahead of the release of US non-farm payrolls data to be released later in the day. The report on US non-farm payrolls will give investors further insight into the health of the world’s biggest economy and the likelihood of further interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve, while China will announce its 2016 growth forecast when the National People’s Congress gets under way on Saturday. On the global front, the dollar was on the defensive against its peers on Friday after soft service sector employment data dampened expectations the Federal Reserve would hike interest rates soon, looking to US non-farm payrolls later in the session for possible relief.

The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 67.30, stronger by 3 paise from its previous close of 67.33 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 67.3450 and 67.22 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 67.37 and for Euro stood at 73.16 on March 03, 2016. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 59.05, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 94.8960. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.