The rupee fell for the fourth straight session and settled 11 paise down at 74.58 (provisional) against the U.S. dollar on Thursday amid fears that a rapid resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the country can disrupt economic recovery.
At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened at 74.38 against the greenback and traded in the range of 74.19 to 74.93 during the day.
The rupee finally ended at 74.58 against the American currency, registering a fall of 11 paise over its previous closing of 74.47.
On Wednesday, the Indian rupee nosedived 105 paise to mark its biggest single-session drop in over 20 months.
India registered a record single-day spike of 1,26,789 new COVID-19 cases, pushing its infection tally to 1,29,28,574, while the number of active cases too went upwards to breach the nine lakh-mark again, Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday showed.
Jateen Trivedi, Senior Research Analyst at LKP Securities, said that "government spending keeps increasing on vaccines and health products due to rising COVID-19 cases. INR will be seen in a range of 74.45-75.15 in sessions ahead with a weak trend for the rupee".
This is the fourth straight session of loss for the domestic unit, during which it has seen depreciation of 146 paise.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.06% to 92.39.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.51% down at $62.84 per barrel.
On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 84.45 points or 0.17% higher at 49,746.21, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced by 54.75 points or 0.37% to 14,873.80.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth ₹227.42 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
