The rupee depreciated 10 paise to close at 94.95 (provisional) against the US dollar on Monday, amid renewed geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran and surge in crude oil prices.
Forex traders said the strength of the American currency in the overseas market and Israel-Lebanon tensions also deteriorated global risk sentiments.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 94.93 against the US dollar, then touched an intraday high of 94.73 and a low of 95.03 during the day.
At the end of Monday's trading session, the rupee was quoted at 94.95 (provisional), down 10 paise from its previous close.
On Friday, the rupee appreciated 73 paise to close at 94.85 against the US dollar on suspected interventions by the RBI.
"We expect the rupee to trade with a slight negative bias on renewed geopolitical tensions and an overnight surge in crude oil prices. A strong dollar and rising US treasury yields may also weigh on the rupee," said Anuj Choudhary, Research Analyst at Mirae Asset ShareKhan.
Choudhary further noted that any continued peace talks may prevent a sharp fall. "USDINR spot price is expected to trade in a range of 94.60 to 95.30," he added.
Forex traders said attention has now shifted toward the upcoming RBI Monetary Policy Committee meeting scheduled for June 3-5. The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), headed by RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, will announce its decision on June 5.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading at 99.04, up 0.10 per cent.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading higher by 3.47 per cent at USD 94.28 per barrel in futures trade.
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On the domestic equity market front, Sensex dropped 508.40 points to settle at 74,267.34, while the Nifty was down 165.15 points to 23,382.60.
Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 21,105.86 crore on a net basis on Friday, according to exchange data.
According to the RBI's latest data released on Friday, India's forex reserves dropped by USD 7.511 billion to USD 681.384 billion during the week ended May 22.
In the previous week, the kitty had dropped USD 8.094 billion to USD 688.894 billion.
According to government data released on Monday, gross GST collections rose 3.2 per cent to over Rs 1.94 lakh crore in May on higher supplies of goods and services, as well as collection from imports.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has said the US and Iran are close to a "very good deal," but if Washington does not get what it wants, then it will “end it in a different way." Trump said the Iranians are "good negotiators," but argued that the United States now holds "all the cards" because Iran has been "militarily defeated."
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