Rupee falls 5 paise to 90.22 against US dollar in early trade

Mumbai, Jan 13 (PTI) The rupee weakened by 5 paise to 90.22 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday, amid a strengthening American currency, higher crude oil prices and incessant outflow of foreign funds.

An unprecedented geopolitical concern and global trade uncertainties have accelerated the dollar demand worldwide, adding strength to the greenback and putting pressure on the Indian currency, analysts said.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 90.24 and gained slightly to trade at 90.22 against the greenback in early deals, registering a loss of 5 paise from its previous closing level.

On Monday, the rupee ended 1 paisa higher at 90.17 against the US dollar.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.11 per cent higher at 98.73.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.28 per cent higher at USD 64.05 per barrel in futures trade.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 3,638.40 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share benchmark index Sensex rose 125.96 points or 0.15 per cent to 84,004.13, while the Nifty advanced 47.25 points or 0.18 per cent to 25,837.50.

Analysts attributed the buying trend in equities to the positive cues triggered by strong domestic macroeconomic numbers.

According to government data released on Monday, India’s retail inflation rose to a three-month high of 1.33 per cent in December, mainly due to higher prices of food items, but remained below the Reserve Bank of India’s lower tolerance level.

Also, the latest data from the Income Tax Department showed the government’s net direct tax collection grew about 8.82 per cent to over Rs 18.38 lakh crore in the current fiscal till January 11 due to slower refunds and better corporate tax mop-up.

Net corporate tax collection grew 12.4 per cent to over Rs 8.63 lakh crore, and taxes from non-corporates, including individuals, rose 6.39 per cent to about Rs 9.30 lakh crore.