The rupee depreciated for the third straight session to close 10 paise lower at 76.29 against the US dollar on Monday, tracking the strength of the greenback overseas coupled with foreign fund outflows.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened lower at 76.41 against the American currency, and shuttled between a high of 76.20 and a low of 76.43.
It finally settled at 76.29, down 10 paise over its previous close of 76.19.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.20 per cent higher at 100.70.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures fell 0.18 per cent to USD 111.50 per barrel.
On the equity market front, the 30-share BSE Sensex ended 1,172.19 points or 2.01 per cent lower at 57,166.74, while the broader NSE Nifty fell 302 points or 1.73 per cent to 17,173.65.
Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers in the capital market on Monday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 6,387.45 crore, according to stock exchange data.
Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities, said the rupee ended weaker against the US dollar, weighed by rising crude prices and strong dollar and bond yields.
However, the local unit was off session lows, helped by sale of dollars by some state-run banks and corporate-linked dollar inflows, Iyer noted.
The local unit had touched the day’s low tracking weaker Asian markets, as the prolonged conflict in Ukraine rekindled worries about global fuel supply disruptions.
The rupee also weakened as hawkish Fed officials and dovish ECB continued to push the dollar and the bond yields higher.
The wholesale price-based inflation spiked to a four-month high of 14.55 per cent in March. In February, WPI Inflation stood at 13.11 per cent, while in March last year, it was 7.89 per cent.
WPI inflation has remained in double digits for the 12th consecutive month since April 2021. In November 2021, it had touched a high of 14.87 per cent.
