Rupee slips 9 paise to close at 75.02 against US dollar

Mumbai, Jul 8

The rupee depreciated 9 paise to settle at 75.02 (provisional) against the US dollar on Wednesday tracking volatile domestic equities, rising crude oil prices and strengthening American currency.

While foreign fund inflows supported the rupee, factors like strong dollar, volatile domestic equities and rising COVID-19 cases dragged the local unit down, Forex traders said. The rupee opened on a positive note at 74.88 at the interbank forex market, but lost ground and settled for the day at 75.02 against US dollar, down 9 paise over its last close.

It had settled at 74.93 against the US dollar on Tuesday. During the four-hour trading session, the domestic unit witnessed an intra-day high of 74.87 and a low of 75.05 against the US dollar.  Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.01 per cent to 96.89.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex was trading 78.64 points higher at 36,753.16 and broader NSE Nifty rose 20.90 points to 10,820.55. Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 829.90 crore on Tuesday, according to provisional exchange data.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.32 per cent to USD 43.22 per barrel. Meanwhile, the number of cases around the world linked to COVID-19 has crossed 1.18 crore and the death toll has topped 5.44 lakh. In India, the death toll due the disease rose to 20,642 and the number of infections increased to 7,42,417, according to the health ministry. PTI