Rupee falls 5 paise to close at ₹83.50 against US dollar

The rupee pared its initial gains and settled for the day 5 paise lower at ₹83.50 (provisional) against the US dollar on Monday, weighed down by elevated crude oil prices. Forex traders said a weak trend in domestic equities also dented investor sentiments.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the local unit opened at ₹83.43, then touched an intra-day high of ₹83.42 and a low of ₹83.50 against the greenback. The rupee finally settled at ₹83.50 (provisional) against dollar, registering a fall of 5 paise over its previous close. On Friday, the rupee inched up 1 paisa to settle at ₹83.45 against the US dollar.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.06% higher at 105.09. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, advanced 0.80% to USD 83.62 per barrel.

On the domestic equity market front, Sensex advanced 17.39 points, or 0.02%, to settle at 73,895.54 points. The Nifty fell 33.15 points, or 0.15%, to close at 22,442.70 points. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital markets on Friday, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 2,391.98 crore, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, India's forex reserves dropped USD 2.412 billion to USD 637.922 billion as on April 26, in the third consecutive weekly decline in the reserves, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday. In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves had declined USD 2.28 billion to USD 640.33 billion.

On the macroeconomic front, the seasonally adjusted HSBC India Services Business Activity Index fell from 61.2 in March to 60.8 in April, highlighting one of the strongest growth rates seen in just under 14 years.

This article has been sourced directly from the PTI news feed. Except for the headline and summary, no other changes have been made.