Rupee strengthens marginally on bouts of dollar selling from banks and exporters

Indian rupee pared its early losses and was trading modestly stronger against the dollar on Friday, on bouts of dollar selling from banks and exporters. Rupee improved further on easing concerns over foreign fund outflows and narrowing of the country's current account deficit (CAD). Report showed that country’s CAD narrowed to $ 0.3 billion, or 0.1 percent of GDP, in the first quarter of 2016-17, significantly lower than $ 6.1 billion or 1.2 percent of GDP in Q1 of 2015-16, on account of lower trade gap. On the global front, the dollar gained in Asian trading on Friday but was on track to end a tumultuous week with losses after the Federal Reserve trimmed its long-term interest rate expectations and the Bank of Japan rebooted its monetary policy framework.

The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 66.65, stronger by 2 paise from its previous close of 66.67 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 66.7325 and 66.6325 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 66.85 and for Euro stood at 75.02 on September 22, 2016. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 66.65, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 87.34.The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.