Pulling back from last week’s fresh multi-day highs, the Indian rupee reached below the 45.30 level against the greenback for the first time since mid-March on increasing dollar-demand from importers despite its offshore rally and weakness in domestic equities.
The Indian market fell sharply in line with peers in Asia and Europe, after Fitch’s downgrade of Greek debt and Standard & Poor’s threat that it may cut Italy’s credit rating sparked worries that there will be further calls for bailouts.
Frenzied selling in index heavyweights pulled the benchmark 30-share Sensex down by about 333 points or 1.82 percent to 17,993, while the broader 50-share Nifty index fell by 100 points or 1.82 percent to 5,387.
The rupee depreciated by more than 1 percent to reach a fresh 2-month low of 45.3225 against the US dollar from Friday’s 4-day high of 44.85. On the downside, the rupee may find target levels around the 45.40/50 area in near-term.