The rupee depreciated 43 paise to an all-time low of 81.52 against the U.S. dollar in early trade on September 26, 2022 as the strengthening of the American currency and risk-averse sentiment among investors weighed on the local unit.
Moreover, escalation of geopolitical risks due to conflict in Ukraine, a negative trend in domestic equities and significant foreign fund outflows sapped the investor appetite, forex traders said.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 81.47 against the greenback, then fell to 81.52, registering a fall of 43 paise over its previous closing.
On Friday, the rupee slumped 30 paise to close at a fresh lifetime low of 81.09 against the US dollar.
The Indian rupee is likely to remain weaker as investors expect that the US Fed will continue to hike interest rates aggressively to cool inflation, Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities, said.
"Focus now shifts to RBI's meeting this week, with its decision due on Friday. We expect RBI to hike rates by 50 bps to cool stubbornly high inflation and prevent the currency from weakening further," Iyer said.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, advanced 0.67 per cent to 113.94.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures fell 0.58% to $85.65 per barrel.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading 797.73 points or 1.37 per cent lower at 57,301.19 points while the broader NSE Nifty fell 260.80 points or 1.51 per cent to 17,066.55 points.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Friday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 2,899.68 crore, as per exchange data.
Meanwhile, the country's forex reserves declined $5.219 billion to $545.652 billion for the week ended September 16.
Sensex tumbles
Benchmark indices fell sharply in early trade, with the Sensex tumbling nearly 817 points amid weak global market trends and foreign fund outflows.
Falling for the fourth day running on Monday, the 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 816.72 points to 57,282.20 points in the initial trade. The NSE Nifty fell 254.4 points to 17,072.95 points.
Among the 30-share Sensex pack, Power Grid, Tata Steel, Maruti, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank and Titan were the major laggards in the early trade.
Nestle and Hindustan Unilever were the only gainers.
Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai were trading lower while Hong Kong quoted marginally higher.
The US markets ended in the negative territory on Friday.
“The global macro construct is not favourable for equity markets in the short run. The dollar index above 113 and the US 10-year yield at 3.73 per cent is likely to aggravate FPI outflows which have been gathering momentum during the last three days.
“The probability of a global recession is also increasing since the US Fed continues to be ultra hawkish,” V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.
On Friday, the BSE benchmark had tanked 1,020.80 points or 1.73 per cent to settle at 58,098.92 points. The Nifty had plummeted 302.45 points or 1.72 per cent to end at 17,327.35 points.
