Rupee plunges 20 paise, settles below 75 per US dollar

The rupee plunged 20 paise and settled below the 75 per US dollar level on Monday tracking negative domestic equities and strengthening American currency.

The rupee opened on a weak note at 74.91 at the interbank forex market, and closed for the day at 75.01 (provisional) against the US dollar, registering a decline of 20 paise over its previous close of 74.81 against the greenback.

During the session, the local unit witnessed an intra-day high of 74.88 and a low of 75.03 against US dollar.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.11 per cent to 93.45.

Forex traders said foreign fund outflow, strong dollar, muted domestic equities and rising Covid-19 cases dragged the local unit down.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex was trading 583.75 points lower at 37,023.14 and broader NSE Nifty fell 161.65 points to 10,911.80.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 958.64 crore on Friday, according to provisional exchange data.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.64 per cent to USD 43.24 per barrel.

Meanwhile, the number of cases around the world linked to Covid-19 has crossed 1.80 crore and in India, the number of infections has topped 18-lakh mark