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Rupee hits all-time low, Sensex worst in two months

Analysts attributed the fall to a strong greenback and risk-averse sentiments of investors
Last Updated 26 September 2022, 18:15 IST

Indians continue to bear witness to a grim picture as the rupee hit a fresh lifetime low on Monday while the BSE Sensex closed at 57,145, the lowest in two months.

Analysts attributed the fall to a strong greenback and risk-averse sentiments of investors. The dollar index, which assesses the dollar's strength against a basket of six currencies, has attained a two-decade peak surpassing the 113 mark recently.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which were net buyers last month have resumed selling trends on Dalal street. "The US Fed’s hawkish tone on interest rates and the fear of a global recession has fuelled pessimism among investors. We expect FPI flow to remain volatile in the coming months," said Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research (retail) at Kotak Securities Ltd.

The US Federal Reserve increased rates by 75 basis points on Thursday prompting central banks across Europe and Asia to follow suit. The spotlight is now on the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on 28 September. "We expect a 50 bps hike in the September meeting," Suvodeep Rakshit, a senior economist from Kotak Institutional Equities told DH.

Commenting on the impact of continuous depreciation on households, Asutosh Mishra, Head of Research (Institutional Equity) at Ashika Group said: "Depreciation of the rupee results in higher cost of imported commodity, especially the crude oil, which results in higher inflation and in turn higher interest rate." However, this time the strength of the dollar is a global phenomenon and thus there is also a fall in global crude prices, Mishra said. "Thus, we will see a neutral impact of weakness in the rupee in this cycle," he added.

With the rupee plummeting 58 paise to close at 81.67 against the dollar, the currency has consistently registered fresh all-time lows in the last four consecutive sessions. Overall, the rupee has pared 193 paise against the American currency so far. Benchmark indices BSE Sensex dropped 953.70 points or 1.64% to settle at 57,145.22, while the broader NSE Nifty fell 311.05 points or 1.8% to 17,016.30.

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(Published 26 September 2022, 17:33 IST)

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