Mumbai : The Indian Rupee today weakened further and has breached the 71 mark for the first time. The Indian currency slide 26 paise to a new record low of 71.0013 against the US dollar during early morning trade on Friday. At this level, the rupee has plunged 11.16% in 2018 from the previous year’s closing mark.
The Indian Stock markets started Friday’s trade on a flat note amid renewed US-China trade war concerns which prompted global equity sell-off. The BSE Sensex started marginally up by 15 points, or 0.04 percent, at 38,704.84, and it further slipped lower by 64 points, or 0.16 percent, to 38,626 in initial trade. The NSE Nifty 50 began at 11,675.85, down by 0.95 points, or 0.01 percent and slipped lower by 20 points, to 11,657.
Yesterday the rupee closed at fresh life time low of 70.74 the dollar due to month-end demand for the US Dollar from importers and rising crude oil prices. However, during the day rupee slipped to a record low of 70.90 to a dollar.
According to experts, month-end demand for the US currency from importers, along with a strong dollar overseas and rising crude oil prices weighed heavy on the Indian Rupee.