Rupee falls for 5th straight session, settles 22 paise down at 73.29/USD

The rupee declined by 22 paise to end at 73.29 (provisional) against the US currency on Monday, marking its fifth straight session of fall as rising crude oil prices weighed on investor sentiment.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened on a negative note at 73.21 per dollar as against its previous close of 73.07.

It hovered in the range of 73.10 to 73.29 per dollar during the day before ending at 73.29 against the American currency.

The domestic unit has lost 49 paise in the last five trading sessions.

"The Indian rupee started the week on the back foot following a stronger dollar and higher crude oil prices. The greenback earmarked the short covering and the expiry of large positions ahead of this week's FOMC meeting," said Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.

Parmar further noted that "there are four IPOs this week, we could see inflows, which may limit the fall in rupee".

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.88 per cent to USD 73.33 per barrel.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.06 per cent to 90.50.

On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 76.77 points, or 0.15 per cent higher at 52,551.53, while the broader NSE Nifty gained 12.50 points or 0.08 per cent to close at 15,811.85.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market on Friday as they purchased shares worth Rs 18.64 crore, as per exchange data.