Rupee falls 25 paise to 82.46 against dollar in early trade

Early on Monday, the rupee lost 25 paise to trade at 82.46 against the US dollar, hurt by rising crude oil costs and a downturn in domestic equities.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit started out weakly against the dollar at 82.44, then dropped to 82.46, losing 25 paise from its previous finish.

On Friday, the rupee settled at 82.21 against the dollar.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.48 per cent to 102.99.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, advanced 5.50 per cent to USD 84.28 per barrel.

Before releasing the first bimonthly monetary policy for fiscal 2023–24, the Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will convene for three days on April 3, 5, and 6 to consider various domestic and international factors.

Although inflation has remained above the central bank's comfort zone of 6% for the majority of the period, the RBI has already raised the repo rate by a total of 250 basis points since May in an effort to control it.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 64.56 points, or 0.11 percent, at 58,926.96 on the domestic stock market. The broader NSE Nifty fell 17.350.15 points, or 0.06 percent.

According to exchange data, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers on Friday in the capital markets, buying shares worth Rs 357.86 crore.

With inputs from Agencies.