Rupee plunges 42 paise to 69.30/USD on stronger dollar

The rupee slumped 42 paise to end at 69.30 against the US dollar Thursday, its second straight session of decline, in line with other Asian currencies amid strengthening of the greenback.

Most Asian currencies struggled amid expectations of dovish monetary policy stance by central banks following a deteriorating global economic outlook.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market, the rupee opened weak at 69.04 and fell further to touch the day's low of 69.35.

It finally finished at 69.30 per dollar, down by 42 paise against its previous close.

On Wednesday, the rupee had weakened marginally by 2 paise to end at 68.88 against the US dollar.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net buyers in the capital markets, putting in Rs 1,481.11 crore Wednesday, as per provisional data.

Meanwhile, brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 1.08 per cent to trade at USD 67.10 per barrel.

BSE benchmark Sensex zoomed over 400 points while the NSE Nifty reclaimed the 11,500 mark Thursday on robust buying in banking, finance, telecom and IT stocks.

The Financial Benchmark India Private Ltd (FBIL) set the reference rate for the rupee/dollar at 69.0038 and for rupee/euro at 77.6868. The reference rate for rupee/British pound was fixed at 91.0280 and for rupee/100 Japanese yen at 62.69.