MUMBAI: The rupee fell 41 paise to hit its intra-day record low of 78.78 against the US dollar on Tuesday, weighed down by persistent foreign capital outflows. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 78.53 against the American dollar, then fell further and touched its intra-day record low of 78.78, registering a fall of 41 paise from the last close.
On Monday, the rupee declined by 4 paise to close at its life-time low of 78.37 against the US dollar. "We believe India's external position remains relatively healthy, but with portfolio outflows expected to continue amid weakening global equity performance, and further deterioration in BoP in coming months, the risks of INR underperformance cannot be discounted," Emkay Global Financial services said in a research note.
Historically, weaker rupee has moved in sync with the BoP (balance of payments) deficit, the note said, adding that "we see a sharp BoP deficit of USD 61 billion and CAD/GDP at 3.2 per cent (USD 112 billion) in FY23E".
CAD refers to Current Account Deficit. Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures rose 1.72 per cent to USD 117.07 per barrel. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.03 per cent higher at 103.97.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share Sensex was trading 66.03 points or 0.12 per cent lower at 53,095.25, while the broader NSE Nifty declined 8.60 points or 0.05 per cent to 15,823.45. Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Monday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,278.42 crore, as per stock exchange data.