Rupee dives to all-time low versus dollar

Mumbai: The Rupee on Monday dropped to a fresh record low against the US dollar, with an increased sell-off resulting from the good US jobs report which hints at more aggressive hikes from US Federal Reserve. The local currency declined 37 paise, to a record low of 82.67 versus the greenback.

The Indian rupee had been depreciating and posting record lows from concerns over FII outflows, rising oil prices, ebbing interests from domestic investors, rising US Treasury yields and demand for the greenback.
The country’s forex reserves went down to $532.66 billion, the lowest since July 2020, in the week through September 30. It was $537.5 billion the week before.

The interventions of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) couldn’t do much to arrest the rupee’s decline. Traders said that the central bank had sold dollars through state-run banks as the local currency went past the 82-mark for the first time.

Growth in the US jobs market is slowing but an unexpected drop in the unemployment rate has fuelled expectations that the Federal Reserve will continue with its aggressive tightening of monetary policy, which will make investors flee from other currencies and bring more investors to the greenback.

US Treasury yields advanced on Monday with the US dollar index nearing the 113 mark.

Oil prices eased on Monday, after having extended their rally with a near 4 per cent jump on Friday to five-week highs. The domestic markets fell on Monday morning as Sensex fell more than 700 points during the early session.