Rupee plunges by 30 paise; nears 67/$

The currency touched a high and low of 67.15 and 67.21 respectively.

The Indian rupee opened lower by 30 paise at 66.91/$ in early trade on Friday. On the domestic front, Nikkei/Markit India Services PMI survey revealed that India's services industry struggled during November as firms remained pessimistic about business prospects. Services PMI index fell sharply to 50.1 from October's level of 53.2. In addition, markets dwelled on the reinforced perception of a US Fed rate hike. Fed Forward rate curves are now suggesting 79% probability of 25 basis points move on the rates.

In international markets, Euro has skyrocketed to 109 levels against the greenback, responding to the European Central Bank's latest policy easing measures. ECB has cut its deposit facility rate to  ‐0.3% from ‐0.2%. Mario Draghi also elaborated that the monthly bond buying programme will be extended till March 2017. However, some of the market participants remain disappointed as the central bank did not increase the quantum of government bonds ECB buys each month. There is a popular opinion that the central bank needs to do more in order to avert the Euro region from the pangs of deflation.

On Thursday, Indian rupee ended at 66.65/$, lower by 4 paise from its previous close of 66.59/$ on Wednesday. The currency touched a high and low of 67.15 and 67.21 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 66.75 and for Euro stood at 70.66 on December 03, 2015. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 54.08, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 99.6102