Rupee Logs Third Straight Loss; India-US Trade Tiff Weighs

New Delhi: The Indian rupee Monday fell by another 11 paise to close at 69.91 to the the US currency, its third straight-session loss, in line with intense sell-offs in domestic equities amid concerns over Indo-US trade tariff disagreements.

The domestic currency has lost 57 paise in the last three sessions. However, easing crude oil prices and weakening of the US dollar against key rivals helped the Indian rupee contain losses to some extent.

At the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market on Monday, the domestic currency opened higher at 69.87 a dollar but lost ground during the day to fall to 69.94. The rupee finally settled at 69.91, down 11 paise over its previous close. The Indian unit had settled at 69.80 a dollar on Friday.

"The rupee fell against the US dollar taking cue from other weak Asian currencies and widening Indian trade deficit for a third consecutive month," said V K Sharma, Head-PCG & Capital Market Strategy, HDFC Securities.

Sharma further said market participants are waiting for the monetary policy of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), Bank of England and Bank of Japan, scheduled this week. Moreover, expectations of foreign fund outflows due to weak investor sentiment in equity market have also weighed on the rupee trading.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, eased 1.05 per cent to USD 61.36 per barrel. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.04 per cent to 97.53.

Meanwhile, the 10-year government bond yield was at 6.93 per cent Monday.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital markets, pulling out Rs 238.64 crore Friday, provisional data showed. On Monday, the BSE Sensex tanked over 491 points and the NSE Nifty dived over 151 points.

Meanwhile, Financial Benchmark India Private Ltd (FBIL) set the reference rate for the rupee/dollar at 69.5646 and for rupee/euro at 78.4308. The reference rate for rupee/British pound was fixed at 88.1986 and for rupee/100 Japanese yen at 64.23.