Rupee slips 9 paise to 76.15 against US dollar in early trade

Mumbai: The rupee dropped 9 paise to trade at 76.15 against the US dollar in opening deals on Monday as sustained sell-offs in domestic equities by foreign investors hurt the local currency’s recovery prospects. Starting off on a tepid note, the rupee traded in a narrow band of 76.13 to 76.16 in early deals at the interbank foreign exchange. Like domestic equities, which have been in the bear territory of late, the rupee too has given up to pressures created by a host of factors like surging cases of Omicron variant of COVID and weak global sentiment . Foreign institutional investors continued to offload shares in the capital market on Friday, as they sold equities worth Rs 2,069.90 crore, exchange data showed. Last week, the local unit recorded its fourth weekly decline amid growing concerns over the Omicron variant of coronavirus. Experts, however, are of the view that as major events of the year are almost done, forex markets may stay calm in the coming week. Meanwhile, the US dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against the basket of six currencies, rose 0.05 percent to 96.61. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 2.23 percent to USD 71.44 per barrel. On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex was down 1,048.11 points or 1.84 percent at 55,963.63, while the broader NSE Nifty declined 323.75 points or 1.91 percent to 16,661.45.