Rupee closes at fresh all-time low of 76.82

The Rupee tanked further on Thursday to close at an all-time low against the US dollar amid the heavy foreign fund outflow from the markets and broad strengthening of the dollar against a basket of currencies.

At the interbank forex market, the domestic currency opened on a weaker note at 76.75 and continued to tumble throughout the day. At the end of the day's trade, the rupee closed down 42 paise at 76.82 against the greenback.

Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in a bid to stop the slide of the Indian rupee, had trimmed the timings of the currency markets by four hours. However, the move does not seem to have yielded dividends, as the rupee has further lost 1.2 per cent in six trading sessions. On a year-to-date basis, the rupee now stands at a loss of 8 per cent against the dollar as more and more investors are taking a flight to safe havens.

On April 3, the RBI curtailed the currency market timings from 10 AM to 2 PM from existing 9 AM to 5 PM with effect from April 7, 2020, and will continue up to April 17, 2020.

However, on Tuesday, the RBI extended the regulations until the end of this month. "In view of the Government of India’s order for continuation of the lockdown till May 3, 2020 (Sunday), it has been decided that the amended trading hours for various RBI regulated markets will continue to be effective till the close of business on Thursday, April 30, 2020," it said in a statement.

Forex traders said the weakness in the rupee was due to the strengthening of the US Dollar against the basket of currencies as investors fled to safe-haven due to risk aversion. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) withdrew a net of Rs 2,920.36 crore from the Indian markets during the day's trade.

"Though the yields on government securities eased a tad on account of lower crude prices, corporate bonds continue to remain under pressure. FPIs are currently utilising only 39% of their eligible limit in corporate bonds and 52% of their limit in government securities. In April, so far, we have seen $1.2 billion of outflows from domestic debt," IFA Global said in a note.

The rupee had settled at 76.44 against the US dollar on Wednesday.