Rupee falls 9 paise to close at 82.82 against US dollar

Mumbai, Feb 21 (PTI) The rupee depreciated 9 paise to close at 82.82 (provisional) against the US dollar on Tuesday as the strength of the American currency in the overseas market and a muted trend in domestic equities weighed on investor sentiments.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 82.76 against the greenback and finally settled for the day at 82.82 (provisional), registering a fall of 9 paise over its previous close of 82.73.

During the session, the domestic unit witnessed an intra-day high of 82.73 and a low of 82.83 against the American dollar.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.12 per cent higher at 103.98.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures declined 0.49 per cent to USD 83.66 per barrel.

According to Jateen Trivedi, VP Research Analyst at LKP Securities, the rupee traded weak near 82.80 against the dollar index which was volatile between 103.80-104.10.

Rupee weakness is borrowed due to anticipated hawkish US Fed’s minutes update. But RBI is supporting the rupee and is keeping the fall and rise limited between 82.65-83.00, Trivedi said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex ended 18.82 points or 0.03 per cent lower at 60,672.72, while the broader NSE Nifty declined 17.90 points or 0.1 per cent to 17,826.70.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital markets on Monday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 158.95 crore, according to exchange data.