Rupee Falls On Weak Domestic Bourses And Higher Oil

The rupee fell over 0.5 per cent, tracking lower Indian shares as the Ukraine crisis escalates, with surging oil prices hurting investors' sentiment further.

India's economic growth missed estimates, with the October-December quarter showing 5.4 per cent expansion, well below 6 per cent expected by economists in a Reuters poll.

The data was released after market hours on Monday, and the markets were closed yesterday on account of Mahashivratri.

That weak economic growth reading was for a period even before the disruptions from the omicron variant of the coronavirus took hold. The heightened uncertainty from the impact of aggressive economic sanctions against Russia over its attack on Ukraine has further added to investors' sentiment.

What has not helped is investors' concerns about surging oil prices, pushing the already high inflation further up and hurting economic growth.

Indian bourses took a beating, with the Sensex plunging over 700 points and the Nifty trading below 16,650.

In line with that, the rupee fell over 0.5 per cent and was last changing hands at 75.82 per dollar from almost a flat reading of 75.33 on Monday.

"Investor sentiment was also harmed by persistent foreign capital outflows," said Kshitij Purohit, Lead International & Commodities at CapitalVia Global Research Limited.