Rupee drops 8 paise to 73.55 against dollar as oil spikes

On Friday, the rupee had settled at 73.47 against the American currency.Since February 25, the rupee has weakened by 1.6 per cent.The rupee depreciated against the US currency tracking the strength of the greenback and importers dollar demand, Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities, said.

The rupee dropped by 8 paise to close at 73.55 against the US dollar on Monday, extending its falling streak to a third day due to spike in global crude oil prices and strong American currency.

At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened lower at 73.76 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 73.19.

The local currency finally ended at 73.55 against the American currency, registering a fall of 8 paise over its previous closing. On Friday, the rupee had settled at 73.47 against the American currency.

Since February 25, the rupee has weakened by 1.6 per cent.

The rupee depreciated against the US currency tracking the strength of the greenback and importers' dollar demand, Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities, said. ''However, depreciation was capped after the US Treasury yields took a breather this Monday,'' Iyer said.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, advanced 0.22 per cent to 91.07.

Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 1.69 per cent to USD 65.51 per barrel.

On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 749.85 points or 1.53 per cent higher at 49,849.84, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 232.40 points or 1.6 per cent to 14,761.55.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 8,295.17 crore on Friday, according to exchange data. Markets will be eyeing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's comments this week on how the Fed assuages the bond market selloff, Iyer said.

Markets will also watch the US economic data this week, including the ISM manufacturing and non-manufacturing reports and the monthly non-farm payrolls data.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)