Mumbai: Halting its five-session winning run, the rupee on Monday declined by 11 paise to close at 74.26 against the US dollar, tracking the firm American currency.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the domestic currency opened at 74.21 against the greenback and slipped further to close at 74.26, registering a decline of 11 paise over its previous close.
During the session, the local unit touched an intra-day high of 74.21 and a low of 74.29 against the US currency.
On Friday, the rupee had settled at 74.15 against the US dollar.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading marginally down by 0.02 per cent at 92.77.
Forex traders said easing crude oil prices and positive domestic equities will limit the depreciation bias of the local unit.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 3.83 per cent to USD 67.99 per barrel.
On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 125.13 points or 0.23 per cent higher at 54,402.85, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 20.05 points or 0.12 per cent to 16,258.25.
According to Jateen Trivedi, Senior Research Analyst at LKP Securities, “Rupee traded on the back foot with loss of 0.12 near 74.25 as dollar index shifted base higher towards USD 92.75. Weak Crude prices helped the rupee to not fall majorly but dollar index strength will keep adding pressure going ahead”.
—PTI

Press Trust of India