Rupee slips 5 paise against US dollar in early trade

The rupee declined 5 paise to 75.49 against the US dollar in opening trade on Wednesday as persistent foreign fund outflows kept the pressure on the local unit.

However, a rally in the domestic equities and sliding crude prices in the international market restricted the rupee's fall, according to forex traders.

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The Reserve Bank of India kept the benchmark lending rate unchanged for the ninth time in a row at 4 per cent.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened strong at 75.38 but could not hold on to the gains and slipped 5 paise to quote 75.49 against the American dollar in early deals.

In the previous session, the rupee had settled at 75.44 against the greenback.

Fitch Ratings on Wednesday cut India's economic growth forecast to 8.4 per cent for the current fiscal but raised the growth projection for the next financial year to 10.3 per cent.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies fell 0.22 per cent to 96.16.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share Sensex was trading 658.72 points or 1.14 per cent higher at 58,292.37 while the broader NSE Nifty surged 198.15 points or 1.15 per cent to 17,374.85.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.15 per cent to USD 75.33 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers in the capital markets, pulling out Rs 2,584.97 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional data.