Rupee hits record low against US dollar, reaches 77.73

Indian rupee hit record low at 77.73 against the US dollar on Tuesday, a day after the forex markets were closed due to Buddha Purnima on Monday. This is a fall of 18 paise against US dollar in early trade.  On the domestic markets front, Sensex opened 242 points higher at 53,216 while Nifty jumped 70 points to settle at 15,912 on Tuesday.  

On the global markets front, S&P 500 ended lower on Monday with Tesla and other stocks losing ground on downbeat Chinese economic data coupled with fears of global slowdown and rising interest rates. Nasdaq declined 1.20 per cent to 11,662.79 points whereas Dow Jones Industrial Average or Dow rose 0.08 per cent to 32,223.42 points.  

The Indian currency closed at 77.49 against the US dollar on Friday amid inflation concerns. This was just 1 paise higher over Rupee's close on Thursday. The domestic currency plunged 25 paise to close at 77.50 against the US currency.  

"Among all the drivers, liquidity factor is inevitably a key driver of recent market moves and market participants are rushing for safe-haven assets," HDFC Securities Research Analyst Dilip Parmar told PTI. He also mentioned that “weakness in regional currencies and depressing economic data weigh in on the local unit while intervention from RBI restricted the losses.”