Rupee Hits Record Low: INR at 88.27 Against USD

Mumbai, Sep 5 (PTI) The rupee declined 15 paise to close at an all-time low of Rs 88.27 (provisional) against the US dollar on Friday amid sustained outflow of foreign funds and fear of additional US tariffs against India.

A weak greenback and falling crude oil prices failed to prevent the fall in local unit, forex traders said.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 88.11 against the US dollar and touched the lowest-ever intra-day level of 88.38 before ending the session at a fresh all-time low closing mark of 88.27 (provisional), down 15 paise from its previous close.

The local unit lost 10 paise to close at 88.12 against the US dollar on Thursday. The previous all-time low for the rupee against the US dollar was at 88.15 on September 2.

"The rupee fell to its record low on rumour of the Trump administration imposing tariffs on the Indian IT sector, taking shares down and USD/INR pair up. However, as news agencies denied the rumour, the rupee recovered slightly though the dollar was still well bid at 87.25 levels," Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director, Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, said.


"The markets anticipated that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had strongly intervened to keep the rupee up. The rupee has suffered following US President Donald Trump's tariff announcements, and has not been able to recover despite a fall in the US dollar index and rise in Asian currencies, particularly the yuan, with FPIs remaining constant sellers of the currency and equity markets," he said.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.31 per cent to 98.03.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.25 per cent lower at USD 66.82 per barrel in futures trade.

On the domestic equity market front, Sensex dipped marginally by 7.25 points to settle at 80,710.76, while Nifty ended with nominal gains of 6.70 points to end at 24,741.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 106.34 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.