Rupee ends lower at 76.45 per dollar

Indian rupee has ended lower by 38 paise at 76.45 per dollar, amid  selling seen in the domestic equity market.

It opened 23 paise lower at 76.30 per dollar against previous close of 76.07.

At 14:21 IST, the Sensex was down 492.24 points or 1.54% at 31370.84, and the Nifty was down 147 points or 1.58% at 9166.90.

"After testing record lows of 76.93 recently, the Indian rupee was able to regain some lost ground in yesterday’s trade to end higher at 76.09. The local unit could witness some respite on the back of sharp recovery in the domestic equity markets where the level of 77 is guarding the local unit from further losses," said Sugandha Sachdeva VP-Metals, Energy & Currency Research, Religare Broking.

"However despite some gains in today’s session, the sentiment still remains skewed on the downside as the global economy is reeling under the impact of coronavirus and there is no end in sight to this pandemic."

"In case the crucial level of 77 is taken out, then rupee looks to quickly resume downhill move towards 77.50 mark. On the flipside, the zone of 75.30-75.20 will act as a strong hurdle for the domestic currency," she added.

The dollar was headed for its best week since early April on Friday, as tumbling oil prices weighed on commodity currencies and division over Europe’s emergency fund dragged on the euro.

Oil prices rose on Friday, gaining further ground as some producers like Kuwait said they would move to cut output swiftly to try to counter the evaporation in global demand for fuels caused by the coronavirus pandemic.