Indian rupee settles 3 paise down at 75.04 against US dollar

The rupee pared some of its initial losses and settled 3 paise down at 75.04 (provisional) against the US dollar on Tuesday, even as domestic equity market was trading with significant gains.

The rupee opened weak at 75.13 at the interbank forex market, then pared some of its early losses to settle at 75.04 against the US dollar, down 3 paise over its previous close of 75.01 against the greenback.

During the session, the domestic unit witnessed an intra-day high of 74.85 and a low of 75.17 against the American currency.

Forex traders said, while positive equity market and foreign fund inflows supported the rupee, factors like weak Asian currencies and rising COVID-19 cases dragged down the local unit.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.08 per cent to 93.46.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex was trading 665.77 points higher at 37,605.37 and broader NSE Nifty rose 179.45 points to 11,071.05.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 7,818.49 crore on Monday, according to provisional exchange data.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 1 per cent to USD 43.71 per barrel.

Meanwhile, the number of cases around the world linked to COVID-19 has crossed 1.82 crore and in India, the number of infections touched 18,55,745.