Rupee falls sharply by 20 paise at 43.12/13 vs dollar

Tue, Jul 15 11:51 AM

Mumbai, Jul 15 (PTI) The Indian rupee today fell sharply by another 20 paise to 43.12/13 against the US currency early this morning following distinctly weak trend in equity markets and capital outflows amid dollar buying by some banks. In active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit resumed lower at 43.02/04 against yesterday's close of 42.92/93 and dropped further to a low of 43.15 before being quoted at 43.12/13 in late morning deals.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued their selling spree and sold shares to the tune of over USD 100 million yesterday as per provisional data and also pulled out over USD 6.7 billion in the current calender year so far, mainly affecting the rupee sentiment. Persistent weakness in local equity markets also pushed the rupee downwards.

The Indian benchmark sensex was down 324 points at 1030 hrs while most of the Asian indices were quoted sharply lower this morning following concerns over the fresh fallout of global credit crisis. According to market participants, traders were seen buying dollars in the local market to sell them in offshore to cash on rate differentials.

Meanwhile, the global crude oil prices remained high near USD 145 a barrel in Asian trade today. PTI.

RECOMMEND THIS STORY