Rupee falls 14ps to 90.09/$

Mumbai: The rupee depreciated 14 paise to close at 90.09 (provisional) against the US dollar on Monday, as elevated crude oil prices and persistent foreign fund outflows dented investor sen-timents. Forex traders said multiple pressures, such as sustained importer demand for the Amer-ican currency, foreign fund outflows from equities, and lingering uncertainty over the India-US trade deal, are keeping investor sentiment fragile.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 90.07, then gave up ground and fell to an intra-day low of 90.26 against the US dollar, down 31 paise from its previous close. At the end of the trade on Monday, the rupee set-tled at 90.09 (provisional) against the greenback, down 14 paise over its previous close.

On Fri-day, the rupee settled at 89.95 against the US dollar, after the Reserve Bank of India cut the key policy interest rate for the first time in six months. On Friday, Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the central bank does not target any band for the rupee in the forex market and allows the domestic currency to find its own correct level.

“We don’t target any price levels or any bands. We allow the markets to determine the prices. We believe that markets, especially in the long run, are very efficient. It’s a very deep market,” he said, while replying to a question on rupee depreciation at a post-monetary policy press meet on Friday.

Forex traders said investors’ focus has now shifted to the Fed’s policy outcome on December 9-10.