Rupee tanks 42 paise to 81.82 against US dollar

Mumbai: The rupee fell by 42 paise to close at 81.82 against the US dollar on Monday as heavy selling pressure in the domestic equities and a spike in crude oil prices weighed on the local unit.

Besides, a stronger greenback against key rivals and persistent foreign fund outflows put pressure on the domestic currency, forex dealers said.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency opened weak at 81.65, fell further to 81.98 against the American currency.

It finally ended at 81.82, down 42 paise over its previous close.

In the previous session, the rupee settled at 81.40 against the greenback.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, advanced 0.30 per cent to 112.45.

On equity market front, key stock indices Sensex and Nifty declined over 1 per cent at close on Monday due to heavy selling in banking, auto and FMCG shares amid weak global market trends and continued foreign fund outflows.

Reversing its previous session's gains, benchmark BSE Sensex tumbled 638.11 points or 1.11 per cent to settle at 56,788.81. During the day, it tanked 743.52 points or 1.29 per cent to 56,683.40.

The broader NSE Nifty fell by 207 points or 1.21 per cent to end at 16,887.35 as 42 of its constituents declined.

Among Sensex stocks, Maruti fell the most by 3.16 per cent, Hindustan Unilever by 2.77 per cent, IndusInd Bank by 2.55 per cent, ITC by 2.32 per cent, Bajaj Finance by 2.26 per cent, State Bank of India by 2.15 per cent and Kotak Mahindra Bank by 2.03 per cent.

Dr Reddy's, NTPC, Bharti Airtel and Wipro were the winners.

Sensex had surged by 016.96 points or 1.80 per cent to settle at 57,426.92 on Friday. The Nifty climbed 276.25 points or 1.64 per cent to end at 17,094.35.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge declined 1.24 per cent and smallcap index fell by 0.54 per cent.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, power fell by 3.24 per cent, utilities by 3.14 per cent, auto (2.11 per cent), FMCG (2.05 per cent), commodities (2.01 per cent), consumer discretionary (1.26 per cent) and realty (1.24 per cent).

Healthcare and telecommunication ended in the green.

Meanwhile, the international oil benchmark Brent crude futures jumped 3.90 per cent to $88.46 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth Rs 1,565.31 crore on Friday, according to data available with BSE. Foreign investors turned sellers in September, pulling out Rs 7,600 crore from Indian equity markets.