Currency

Strength in the dollar against a basket of currencies amid rising US bond yields battered the rupee.

While some selling of the dollar by exporters and banks boosted the rupee, a higher opening of stock markets also lifted the domestic currency, according to forex dealers.

The dollar to rupee exchange rate today moved in a range of 66.46-66.14. At the day's lowest point, the rupee weakened 1.26 against the US dollar on a cumulative basis in six consecutive trading sessions.

Rupee logged its lowest closing since March 14, 2017, when it had closed at 65.82 against the US dollar.

Losses in domestic stock markets, where benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty broke their nine-session winning streak, dragged the currency lower.

The rupee extended its losing run for the second straight day, falling by another 15 paise to end at a near 7-month low of 65.64 against the US dollar amid persistent capital outflows and a fresh ripple of geopolitical tensions. That came a day after the rupee closed at a low of 65.49. Weakness in the rupee came despite a rally in equity market benchmarks Sensex and Nifty, which logged their ninth straight day of gains in their longest winning streak over three years.

The rupee (INR) today fell 29 paise against the US dollar (USD) to close at 65.49, a more than six-month low. The rupee traded in the range of 65.50 to 65.32 against the greenback earlier in the session. The rupee's closing of 65.49 on Monday marks the weakest closing level against the US dollar since October 3, when the Indian currency had ended at 65.50. Trade deficit widening to $13.7 billion in March and the US adding India to the currency watch list, led to a downfall in the domestic currency, said forex advisory firm IFA Global.

In the previous week, the reserves had surged by $1.828 billion to $424.366 billion.

Coinsecure said nearly Rs 19,57,05,000 were stolen from its bitcoin wallet, the biggest reported so far in the local virtual currency market.

With Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Ripple also rose sharply.

On Luxembourg-based BitStamp, bitcoin price trades at $6,727 while it closed at $6,780 a day before.

TRON (TRX) soars 25% on Thursday, data on coinmarketcap shows

At the beginning of this year Bitcoin was trading at $13,443.

Yesterday, the rupee had lost 10 paise and slipped to 64.97 against the dollar.

The cryptocurrency was last up 2.94 per cent at $14,030.00 at the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange.