Rupee weakens against dollar; Foreign outflow, domestic indices hit currency

Trading in Indian rupee has been very buoyant over the last week and today was no different as the currency weakened against US benchmark dollar index. The domestic unit gave away previous gains against the American unit and opened 22 paise down to 67.65 per dollar  in early trade at interbank forex market. Indian rupee has been impacted by higher crude oil prices, foreign investors outflows and geopolitical tensions. 

At around 1216 hours, the Indian rupee was trading 67.845 down by 0.415 points or 0.62% against US dollar.  "Continued foreign capital outflows and month-end dollar demand weighed on rupee sentiment," a dealer said in a PTI report. Moreover, the US currency was up  0.2% against a basket of major currencies to stay near the highest since mid-November.

In previous trading session, the Indian currency finished at 67.413 above 0.47% against the dollar. At the same time, the foreign investors continued to remove their money from Indian market, as they recorded an outflow of Rs 2,097.99 crore cumulatively in equity, debt and hybrid market. 

Meanwhile on Tuesday, even domestic indices added to the woes of Indian rupee. The benchmark Sensex was trading at 35,108.56 down by 56.92 points or 0.16%, however in early opening the index dropped by 57.30 points, or 0.16% to 35,108.18. 

On the other hand, the Nifty was trading at 10,674.90 down 13.75 points or 0.13%.