Rupee slips 5 paise to close at 74.79 against US dollar

The rupee declined by 5 paise to close at 74.79 (provisional) against the US dollar on Wednesday amid persistent foreign fund outflows and elevated crude oil prices.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 74.70 against the American dollar, and later witnessed an intra-day high of 74.68 and a low of 74.87 against the greenback.

The local unit finally ended the day at 74.79, down 5 paise from the previous close of 74.74.

"Rupee remained fairly subdued ahead of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monetary policy but slow depreciation has been seen in the last two days on back of foreign fund outflows from domestic equities and bonds," said Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.

On the overseas front, dollar bulls remained in control with the greenback rallying from its 100-days moving average while equities managing to recover some lost ground.

"Spot USDINR is likely to consolidate in the range of 74.60 to 75.10 in the next couple of days," Parmar said.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.14 per cent lower at 95.51.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share Sensex ended 657.39 points or 1.14 per cent higher at 58,465.97, while the broader NSE Nifty settled up 197.05 points or 1.14 per cent at 17,463.80.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures fell 0.36 per cent to USD 90.45 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Tuesday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,967.89 crore, according to stock exchange data.