Rupee tumbles to 2-week low, breaches 68-mark vs US dollar

The rupee today slipped further to a fresh two-week low of 68.03, plummeting by 16 paise against the American currency, following a sudden rise in the dollar's value against other global currencies.
Sustained dollar demand from importers and corporates alongside heavy capital outflows largely kept domestic unit under pressure for the second straight day.
The American currency regained its buoyant strength after a brief sideways movement following overnight US Fed's optimistic tone about the future of the US economy and also expectations of further rate hikes faster than initially expected.
Fresh geopolitical unease on the back of attacks in Germany and Turkey on Monday also added some amount of volatility in the currency market, a dealer commented.

Foreign Institutional Investors continued their relentless sell-offs in domestic equities and sold worth Rs 535.77 crore yesterday, as per the provisional data.
The home currency opened a tad higher at 67.86 as compared to Monday's closing value of 67.87 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market and gained further ground to 67.81 on fresh dollar selling by exporters.

However, the rupee trimmed its initial gains and kept drifting to hit a intra-day low of 68.07 late afternoon deals before ending at 68.03, revealing a fall of 16 paise, or 0.24 per cent.
This is the weakest close since December 5 when it had closed at 68.21 against the dollar.

The US dollar index was trading sharply higher at 103.56 in late afternoon.
Meanwhile, the RBI today fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 67.8954 and euro at 70.4686.
In cross-currency trade, the rupee remained under immense
pressure against the British pound and finished at 81.12 from 80.88 and also dropped further against the Japanese Yen to end at 57.91 per 100 yens compared to 57.85 last Friday.
The domestic unit, however, held steady against the euro 70.29.
Meanwhile, domestic stocks witnessed fresh round of profit-taking after last week's spectacular rally as software stocks remained under pressure on worries about a stronger rupee.

Subdued Asian stocks in the midst of renewed worries about the health of global free trade also weighed on trade.
The flagship Sensex slumped 130.25 points to close at 29,518.74, while broader Nifty dropped 33.20 points to finish at 9,126.85.
In the forward market, premium for dollar displayed a lacklustre trade in absence of any major buying activity.
The benchmark six-month premium for August was quoted soft at 143-145 paise from 143.25-145 paise and the far-forward February 2018 contract eased to 295-297 paise from 296-297 paise last weekend.
On the global commodity front, crude prices plunged sharply by more than 1 per cent on Monday as investors made record cuts to bets on rising prices after strong drilling data from the United States rekindled concerns about the effectiveness of OPEC-led production cuts to curb a supply glut.