Re tumbles 39 P against dollar on ‘surgical strikes’

TIL Desk/Business/Mumbai-The rupee on Thursday lost a whopping 39 paise, its biggest single-day fall in three months, against the US dollar to close at 66.85 after the Army carried out “surgical strikes” Wednesday night on terror launchpads across LoC. Overall sentiment turned highly volatile on fears that heightening tensions between India and Pakistan could bitter sentiment for foreign investors who have been pumping funds into the world’s fastest emerging economy.

Month-end dollar demand from oil companies along with aggressive hedging strategy adopted by importers in the wake of currency volatility mainly weighed on the rupee trade. In parallel, the benchmark BSE Sensex tumbled over 465 points to end at 27,827.53. At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit commenced higher at 66.44 from last close of 66.46 and firmed up further to 66.42 on sustained selling of the greenback by exporters and banks amidst higher opening in the domestic equity market.

However, the rupee suffered a big blow in noon trade and witnessed a sharp downturn to hit a low of 66.92 after reports of surgical strikes against Pakistan flashed alongside a massive fall in local equities. It remained under immense pressure throughout the day witnessing high amount of volatility and wide swings before recovering some ground to end at 66.85, showing a steep fall of 39 paise, or 0.59 per cent.