Typo in deployment hook .sh for keystore renewal?

KEYSTORE_PASS=$(grep "^nxt.keyStorePassword=" $PROPERTIES_PATH | cut -d'=' -f2)

I am curious if the ^ in front of nxt.keyStorePassword in the grep command is a typo? Why is it there?

Is to get only lines "beginning with" ignoring those with "# nxt.keyStorePassword" which are comments for example.