With the dollar gaining strength and foreign fund outflows persisting, it was another day of fall for the Indian rupee, which settled at 88.14 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday after sliding 12 paise.
Further losses in the rupee were capped by a buoyant market mood owing to GST reforms and a drop in international crude oil prices, said forex traders.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 88.09 against the US dollar and traded in the range of 87.85-88.19 before settling at 88.14 (provisional), down 12 paise from its previous close.
It had recovered 13 paise from its all-time low level to settle at 88.02 against the US dollar on Wednesday.
Also Read: Rupee recovers by 9 paise from its all-time low
Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director, Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, said the Indian equities were unable to sustain their gains while the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) sold dollars at the higher end, leading to a fall in the rupee.
"FPIs continued to be dollar buyers and equity sellers,” he further reasoned, and said other factors that have prevented the domestic currency from showing any gains include US tariff concerns and capital outflows.
“The revisions to GST... led to a marginal improvement early in the morning," he said. Bhansali said the local unit is expected to trade in the range of 87.80 to 88.50.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was up 0.08 per cent to 98.21.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 1.07 per cent lower to USD 66.88 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex rose 150.30 points to settle at 80,718.01, while Nifty was up 19.25 points to 24,734.30.
Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth ₹1,666.46 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
Follow us
