Rupee skids 20 paise to settle at 75.01 against USD
The Indian rupee on Monday slid 20 paise to close at 75.01 to the US dollar, weighed down by lackluster equities and concerns over a continuous surge in COVID-19 cases in the country. Starting off the session on a weak note, the domestic unit swung between a high of 74.88 and a low of 75.03.
It finally ended at 75.01, registering a loss of 20 paise against the greenback.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.11 per cent to 93.45.
Forex traders attributed the rupee fall to a host of reasons like stronger dollar, muted domestic equities and rising COVID-19 cases dragged the local unit down.
On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex plunged 667.29 points or 1.77 per cent to end at 36,939.60; while the NSE Nifty slumped 181.85 points or 1.64 per cent to settle at 10,891.60.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.64 per cent to USD 43.24 per barrel.
Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 7,818.49 crore on Monday, exchange data showed.
Meanwhile, the number of cases around the world linked to COVID-19 has crossed 1.80 crore and in India, the number of infections has topped 18-lakh mark.
"USD/INR ended higher on likely overseas outflows from equity markets and amid concerns over a continuous surge in coronavirus cases across the world," Devarsh Vakil, Deputy Head Retail Research, HDFC Securities, said.
The Financial Benchmark India Private Ltd (FBIL) set the reference rate for the rupee/dollar at 74.7722 and for rupee/euro at 88.8737. The reference rate for rupee/British pound was fixed at 98.1719 and for rupee/100 Japanese yen at 71.64.
"The Indian rupee depreciated against the US dollar on Monday as dollar purchases by private banks added to an early weakness stemming from a rebound in the dollar index and weak local shares," said Sriram Iyer, senior analyst, Reliance Securities.
