Rupee falls 14 paise against US dollar in early trade

Mumbai, April 22 (PTI): The rupee depreciated 14 paise to 76.31 against the US dollar in opening trade on Friday, as a lacklustre trend in the domestic equity markets and a firm American dollar weighed on investor sentiment.

However, a pullback in international crude prices restricted the losses, forex traders said.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened sharply lower against the US dollar, and was moving in a tight range with a negative bias. It was trading at 76.31 in early deals, registering a fall of 14 paise over the last close.

In the previous session, the rupee rose 13 paise to close at 76.17 against the US dollar.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.04 per cent to 100.65.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share Sensex was trading 588.97 points or 1.02 per cent lower at 57,418.86, while the broader NSE Nifty fell 175.55 points or 1.01 per cent to 17,217.05.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures slipped 1.13 per cent to USD 107.11 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers in the capital market on Thursday as they offloaded shares worth INR 713.69 crore, as per stock exchange data