Rupee falls 17 paise to 75.95 against US dollar in early trade

The rupee declined by 17 paise to 75.95 against the US dollar in opening trade on Tuesday, as muted domestic equities and persistent foreign fund outflows weighed on the local unit.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened weak at 75.94, then slipped further to 75.95 against the US dollar in early deals, registering a decline of 17 paise from the last close.

In the previous session, the rupee had settled at 75.78 against the greenback.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share Sensex was trading 333.75 points or 0.57 per cent lower at 57,949.67, while the broader NSE Nifty declined 95.15 points or 0.55 per cent to 17,273.10.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, increased by 0.13 per cent to 96.44.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures fell by 0.39 per cent to USD 74.10 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers in the capital market on Monday, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 2,743.44 crore, as per exchange data.

On the domestic macro-economic front, retail inflation inched up to a three-month high of 4.91 per cent in November, mainly due to an uptick in food prices, government data showed on Monday.