Rupee trading weak at 64.48

The rupee was trading weak at 64.48 on fresh capital outflows and dollar demand from banks and importers.

This is the third straight slide, which dealers say is mostly due to incoming demand for the US currency and a weak domestic stock market.

But the

continuing political turmoil surrounding US President Donald Trump’s recent executive decisions and uncertainty about his economic agenda put the dollar in a spot of bother overseas, which somewhat limited the rupee’s slump.

The domestic unit opened weak by 27 paise at 64.42 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market today. It hovered in a range of 64.50 and 64.32 before quoting at 64.48, down 33 paise at 2.40 pm local time.

Yesterday, the rupee had ended lower by 7 paise at 64.15 due to sustained demand for the greenback from importers.

Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex was trading lower by 161.38 points or 0.53 per cent at 30,497.39.

The dollar wallowed near six-month lows against a basket of major currencies on Thursday as the US political crisis appeared to deepen, threatening to delay efforts by President Donald Trump to implement his economic stimulus plans.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major rivals, fell as low as 97.333 on Wednesday, its lowest level since November 9, having given up all the gains it had made following the US presidential election in November.