Mumbai, India (BBN) – The rupee was trading strong at 67.73 on increased selling of the American currency by exporters and banks despite the RBI’s decision to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.25 percent.
The domestic unit opened up by 8 paisa at 67.82 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market today, reports The Hindu Business Line.
It hovered in a range of 68 and 67.73 before quoting at 67.73 up 17 paisa at 4.40 pm local time.
Yesterday, the local currency had staged a strong recovery by gaining 31 paisa to close at 67.90 – its highest level in three weeks – on heavy dollar selling and rising expectations of a rate cut by RBI.
The dollar edged back up towards a 10-month high against the yen on Wednesday, while most major currencies appeared to be looking ahead to Thursday’s European Central Bank policy meeting.
The ECB is widely expected to announce an extension to its quantitative easing programme, but there is uncertainty over whether the size of the monthly asset purchases will be kept steady or scaled back, and over whether a formal signal on the eventual end of the asset-purchase programme will be sent.
Meanwhile, the benchmark Sensex ended down by 155.89 points or 0.59 per cent at 26,236.87
BBN/MS/ANS