The Indian rupee’s downward journey continued on Friday as it settled at a fresh all time low and well below the 82 mark against the US dollar. The rupees hit the intra-day low of 82.43 and finally settled for the day at an all-time low of 82.30 against the American currency.
The rupee’s decline is in line with weakness in the majority of the global currencies due to the Russia-Ukraine war, rising fuel prices, and uncertain economic scenario prevailing across the world.
The rupee also plummeted due to World Bank’s downgrade of India’s GDP to 6.5 per cent for the fiscal year 2022-23 from an earlier estimate of 7.5 per cent. Indian economy grew by 8.7 per cent last fiscal.
Forex experts content the RBI can do little at this stage to control the slide of rupee due to depletion of foreign currency reserve.
On Thursday, the Indian currency for the first time closed below the 82 level against the greenback. It plunged 55 paise to close at a record low of 82.17 against the US currency. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, declined 0.19 per cent to 112.04. Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures surged 0.82 per cent to USD 95.19 per barrel after oil cartel OPEC decided to cut production in view of weakening global demand.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 30.81 points or 0.05 per cent to end at 58,191.29, while the broader NSE Nifty fell 17.15 points or 0.1 per cent to 17,314.65.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market on Thursday as they purchased shares worth Rs 279.01 crore, as per exchange data.