Rupee slips 12 paise to 74.93 against US dollar in early trade

The rupee depreciated 12 paise to 74.93 against the US dollar in opening trade on Monday tracking negative domestic equities and strengthening American currency.

The rupee opened on a weak note at 74.91 at the interbank forex market, then lost further ground and touched 74.93 against US dollar, down 12 paise over its last close.

It had settled at 74.81 against the US dollar on Friday.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.08 per cent to 93.42.

Forex traders said foreign fund outflow, strong dollar, muted domestic equities and rising COVID-19 cases dragged the local unit down.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex was trading 414.31 points lower at 37,192.58 and broader NSE Nifty fell 105.55 points to 10,967.90.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 958.64 crore on Friday, according to provisional exchange data.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.34 per cent to USD 43.37 per barrel.

Meanwhile, the number of cases around the world linked to COVID-19 has crossed 1.80 crore and in India, the number of infections topped the 18-lakh mark.