Rupee rout deepens, slips 16 paise to 74.44 against USD

The Indian rupee fell by another 16 paise to 74.44 against the US dollar as financial markets around the globe continued to feel jitters of coronavirus pandemic.

A day earlier, the Indian currency had tumbled by 60 paise to close at a new 17-month low of 74.28 amid coronavirus pandemic fanning global economic recession fears.

Meanwhile, the global crude oil benchmark Brent Futures fell 0.87 per cent to trade at USD 32.93 per barrel.

A sense of anxiety among investors has developed as they see the global economy is plunging into a deep crisis due to coronavirus pandemic that has killed about 5,000 and sickened lakhs of people around the globe, analysts said.

Amid the heavy rush for the US dollar in forex markets, the Reserve Bank announced liquidity measures such as buy-sell swap of USD 2 billion to increase dollar availability with banks and ease pressure on rupee.

In the current month so far, FPIs have pulled out a whopping Rs 33,163 crore (USD 4.46 billion) from Indian capital markets.

Meanwhile, the Indian equity market saw another tumultuous opening session for a second day on Friday, with the benchmark Sensex plunging over 3,000 points to trade below the psychological 30,000 level; while the NSE gauge Nifty crashed nearly 1,000 points to dip below the 9,000 mark.

Indian bourses halted trading for 45 minutes during the early session after both the benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty hit their lower circuit limits.