Rupee breaches 73-mark against USD

Mumbai: The Indian rupee furthered its loss by another 9 paise to breach the 73-level against the US dollar on Thursday as stronger greenback weighed on the domestic unit. The local currency traded in a narrow range as investors looked to key US inflation data and European Central Bank meeting later in the day for further cues, forex traders said. At the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market, the rupee opened at 72.96 per dollar as against its previous close of 72.97. It hovered in the range of 72.94 to 73.12 during the day before ending at 73.06 – clocking its third straight session of loss.

The domestic currency has lost 26 paise in the last three trading sessions. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.09 per cent to 90.20. "The Indian rupee depreciated against the US currency, on broad dollar strength ahead of the much-awaited inflation data in the US that could alter the Federal Reserve's policy outlook," said Sriram Iyer, senior research analyst at Reliance Securities. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.07 per cent to $72.27 per barrel.

Asian currencies and equities were mostly stronger ahead of the data, while the local equity markets also rose this Thursday and capped the weakness of the unit, Iyer noted. On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 358.83 points or 0.69 per cent higher at 52,300.47, while the broader NSE Nifty rose 102.40 points or 0.65 per cent to 15,737.75.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market on Thursday as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,329.70 crore, exchange data showed.