Rupee recovers against dollar as RBI curbs exporter foreign currency holdings

The rupee recovered against the US dollar on Thursday amid positive trade in the local equity markets. However Reserve Bank of India (RBI) made a remarkable move to support its beat-up currency on Thursday, by asking exporters to sell half the foreign currency in their accounts, which helped to strengthen the rupee. The RBI also said the intraday open position trading can be five times the net overnight open limits available to them to improve liquidity in the market. Previously they could not exceed the overnight limit. Meanwhile investors expect that central bank will take further administrative measures and intervene in the markets to support the rupee in recent sessions.

The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 53.26, stronger by 55 paise from its previous close of 53.81on Wednesday. It has touched a high and low of 53.90 and 52.97 respectively.  The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at Rs 53.46 and for Euro it stood at Rs 69.40 on May 9, 2012. While, the RBI's reference rate for the Yen stood at 67.00 the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 86.2711. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.