Rupee tumbles 20 paise to 64.38 vs dollar

A massive fall in local equities amid heightened global volatility took its toll on the currency market today, with the rupee plunging 20 paise to end at a fresh two-week low of 64.38 against the US dollar.

This is the biggest one-day fall for the home currency since April 10.

Sustained demand for the greenback from importers and corporates alongside heavy capital outflows largely kept the rupee under pressure for the second straight day.

Firm dollar overseas also weighed on rupee trade.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange market, the rupee resumed lower at 64.22 from Thursday's closing of 64.18 and kept descending due to immense dollar pressure.

It touched a fresh intra-day low of 64.39 in late afternoon deals before concluding at 64.38, showing a steep loss of 20 paise, or 0.31%.

The RBI, meanwhile, fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 64.3079 and for the euro at 70.5972.

Sentiment across Asian currencies was affected due to cautious stance adopted by participants ahead of US jobs data release as well as a crash in oil and other commodity prices overnight.

Domestic stocks witnessed their biggest one-day slump in more than a month following heavy sell-off across-the-board.

The flagship Sensex tanked over 267 points to end at 29,858.80, while the broader Nifty retreated from record closing high, tumbling 74.60 points to 9,285.30.

In worldwide trade, the greenback traded little changed against its major trading rivals.

Euro traded near six-month peaks against the dollar on expectations that centrist Emmanuel Macron will win Sunday's French Presidential election.

The dollar index, which tracks the US currency against a basket of six major rivals, was up 0.02% at 98.63.

In cross-currency trade, the Indian unit retreated sharply against the pound sterling to end at 83.24 from 82.72 per pound and dropped further against the euro to settle at 70.55 as compared to 70.14 yesterday.

It also fell back against the Japanese Yen to close at 57.23 per 100 yens from 56.84 earlier.

In the forward market today, premium for dollar continued to fall owing to consistent receivings from exporters.

The benchmark six-month premium for October eased to 152-154 paise from 154-156 paise and the far-forward April 2018 also edged down to 310-312 paise from 312-314 paise on Thursday.

On the international commodity front, crude prices plunged sharply to hit fresh five-month lows on growing concerns about a global glut despite assurances from Saudi Arabia that Russia was ready to join OPEC in extending supply cuts.

The US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures fell more than 3% in early trading to trade below $44 per barrel, while Benchmark Brent was up 11 cents to $48.49, after falling 3% overnight.