Rupee ends one-week low against US dollar

Indian rupee weakened for the second consecutive session to hit a one-week low against the US dollar on Friday due to fresh demand for the American currency from banks and importers. Some cautiousness prevailed as US Trade Representative Michael Froman underlining the need to improve the business environment in India in order to ensure greater investment inflow, has said that certain areas in the Indian economy like retail and financial services needed further opening up. Also, weak domestic equity market as well as fall in Asian currencies too weighed on the rupee sentiments. On the global front, euro hit its lowest against the dollar since March after the European Central Bank (ECB) left its ultra-loose policy unchanged on Thursday but kept the door open to more stimulus in December.

Finally, the rupee ended at 66.88, 7 paise weaker from its previous close of 66.81 on Thursday. The currency touched a high and low of 66.94 and 66.84 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 66.89 and for Euro stood at 72.97 on October 21, 2016. While the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 64.40, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 81.95. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.