Rupee Closes At 9-Month Low Against Dollar: 10 Things To Know

On Friday, the rupee had closed at a two-week high of 71.42 against the dollar.

The domestic currency came under pressure after official data released on Friday showed that country's GDP growth fell to an over six-year low of 5 per cent in the June quarter, analysts said.
"Monthly auto sales, eight core infra data and PMI data also came in weak along with the GDP and weighed on the Indian Rupee," news agency PTI quoted VK Sharma, head PCG & capital markets strategy, HDFC Securities as saying. IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) showed that the country's manufacturing sector activity declined to its 15-month low in August.
Analysts said a stronger dollar also dragged the rupee down. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, inched up 0.36 per cent to 99.27.
The lingering US-China trade war and Brexit fears also dragged the domestic currency, even as crude oil prices eased. "US-China trade war jitters and weak quarterly GDP data from India lead to this fall," said Vaqarjaved Khan, research analyst, Angel Broking.
"Rupee is likely to depreciate towards 73.5 by the end of September 2019 if the trade war escalates further between US and China and outflows from Indian equity market continues,” Mr Khan added.
On Monday, China said it had lodged a complaint against the US with the World Trade Organization (WTO), one day after new tariffs were imposed by Washington on billions of dollars of Chinese goods came into force.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital markets pulling out Rs. 2,016 crore on Tuesday, as per NSE's provisional data.
The domestic equity markets witnessed declines in today's trade. The Sensex slumped 770 points to settle at 36,563 and the NSE Nifty 50 index dropped 225 points to close at 10,798.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, eased 1.55 per cent to $57.75 per barrel.
The 10-year government bond yield was at 6.52 per cent on Friday.