Rupee surrenders early gains; concludes weak against dollar

Indian rupee surrendered its early gains to end weaker against dollar on Thursday due to fresh demand for greenback by banks and importers. Besides, heavy losses in the domestic equity market also hit the rupee sentiment. Further, India Ratings of the Fitch Group said that it was lowering its growth forecast for the country to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent. On the global year, dollar dropped against the other major currencies on Thursday, after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged, as expected, and gave little indications on future policy moves.

Finally, the rupee ended at 66.51, 6 paise weaker from its previous close of 66.45, on Wednesday. The currency touched a high and low of 66.55 and 66.37 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 66.40 and for Euro stood at 75.42 on April 28, 2016. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 61.32, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 96.8310. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.