Rupee check: Domestic currency breaches 91-mark against US dollar for first time in intra-day trade

The rupee fell from 90 a dollar to 91 in the last 10 trading sessions. The local unit has slipped 1% against the greenback in the past five sessions alone.

At 11:45 AM, the local unit was trading at 91.14 against the US dollar, down 36 paise from its previous close.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 90.87 against the greenback and kept losing ground as the session progressed.

The rupee on Monday settled at a new all-time low of 90.78 against the US dollar, registering a loss of 29 paise over its previous close, weighed down by uncertainty over an India-US trade deal and persistent foreign fund outflows.

"The US-India trade deal still seems to be off by a distance, with the Commerce Secretary saying the first phase will be signed before the end of the year and news that we are closest to the deal being signed. The uncertainty has clouded the recovery on the USD/INR pair as the rupee opened lower with dollar buying happening every day," Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director, Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, said.

Even a reduction in trade deficit on Monday could not bring about a recovery in the rupee with Foreign Institutional Investor (FII) outflows continuing, he added.

According to the latest government data released on Monday, India's trade deficit narrowed to a five-month low of $24.53 billion in November, as exports rebounded by 19.37% to a six-month high of $38.13 billion after contracting in October, driven by higher shipments of engineering and electronics goods.

At the same time, the country's imports dipped by 1.88% to $62.66 billion due to a fall in the inbound shipments of gold, crude oil, coal, and coke.

FIIs sold equities worth ₹1,468.32 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

Also, wholesale price inflation stayed in the negative for the second consecutive month in November at (-) 0.32%, even though there was an uptick in prices of food articles like pulses and vegetables on a month-on-month basis, government data showed on Monday.

Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation was at (-) 1.21% in October and 2.16% in November last year.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.03% lower at 98.27.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.61% lower at $60.19 per barrel in futures trade.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share benchmark index, Sensex, declined 363.92 points to 84,849.44 in early trade, while the Nifty was down 106.65 points to 25,920.65.