Rupee strengthens on increased selling of American currency by banks and exporters

Indian rupee strengthened against dollar in early deals on Tuesday on increased selling of the American currency by banks and exporters. Further, the dollar’s weakness against other currencies overseas as investors await Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s speech on monetary policy backed up the rupee at the Inter-bank Foreign Exchange. Traders are also eyeing US non-farm payroll and unemployment data on Friday. A better-than-expected number will raise the possibility of a Fed rate hike in their April month policy meet. However, a weak trend in early trade in the domestic equity market capped the gains. On the global front, the yen nursed broad losses early on Tuesday and even underperformed a defensive greenback, which sagged on the back of disappointing US economic data.

The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 66.54, stronger by 3 paise from its previous close of 66.57 on Monday. The currency touched a high and low of 66.5775 and 66.4850 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 66.66 and for Euro stood at 74.42 on March 28, 2016. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 58.72, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 94.3019. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.