The Indian rupee became stronger on Friday gaining as much as 23 paise against the US dollar in the early trades. The rupee moved up by 23 paise at 63.63 apiece US dollar at the interbank foreign exchange market. The domestic currency opened 12 paise higher at 63.74 against the US dollar on Friday. The Reserve Bank of India today fixed the reference rate of the rupee at 63.8431 against the US dollar on Thursday. Earlier yesterday, the rupee gave up intraday session gains but ended up against the US dollar on Thursday, rising by 3 paise. The rupee got appreciated by 3 paise to end at 63.86 apiece US dollar on Thursday. During the day, the domestic currency advanced as much as by 14 paise to the day’s high at 63.75 against the US dollar on Thursday.
In a major development yesterday, a tax rate cut on 49 items was recommended, including 0% on handicraft products in the 25th GST Council meeting. Uttarakhand Finance Minister Prakash Pant told reporters that tax rates on some agriculture products and some goods under the 12% and 18% were cut, while 29 handicraft products were brought under the 0% tax bracket. “The Fitment committee has approved relaxation on 29 handicrafts to 0%,” he said.
Meanwhile, India’s stock started on a positive note on Friday with Sensex and Nifty opening in green ahead of the third quarter earnings of blue-chip companies such as HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Wipro. BSE Sensex rose 78.82 points or 0.22% to began the day at 35,339.11 whereas NSE Nifty added 12.2 points or 0.11% to open at 10,829.2. The domestic equities are likely to witness volatile trade in today’s session following the uncertainties over results. In the wee hours of trading, key equity indices extended the gains led by the upsurge in shares of Adani Ports, State Bank of India, Reliance Industries, L&T, Axis Bank, HDFC and ITC. Benchmark Sensex surged 164.09 points to hit a day’s high of 35,424.38.
On Wednesday, the government’s decision to slash its additional borrowing requirement for the current fiscal to Rs 20,000 crore from Rs 50,000 crore, estimated earlier, brought some much-needed relief for the beaten forex market. The Indian rupee suffered its biggest single-day fall in eight months on Tuesday and endured some turbulent trading across Asian forex region, hit hard by trade deficit worries which widened to a three-year high on higher oil and gold imports. The rupee had lost 55 paise, or nearly 1% to end at a fresh two-week low of 64.04 against the US dollar on Tuesday.
