Rupee slips 12 paise to 74.93 per dollar amid fund outflows, muted equities

Indian rupee, the local currency depreciated 12 paise to 74.93 per dollar on Monday's opening bell, tracking negative domestic equities, foreign fund outflows and strengthening US currency.

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The domestic unit opened on a weak note at 74.91 at the interbank forex market, and lost ground further to touch 74.93 per dollar, down 12 paise over its last close of 74.81 against the US dollar on Friday.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.08 per cent to 93.42.

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 414.31 points lower at 37,192.58 and broader NSE Nifty fell 105.55 points to 10,967.90.

In India, domestic coronavirus cases neared 18.05 lakh with total deaths standing at 38,176. Worldwide, there are 182 lakh confirmed cases and 6.9 lakh deaths from the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak.

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 0.34 per cent to USD 43.37 per barrel.

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(Written with PTI Inputs)