Mumbai: The Indian rupee touched an all-time low and breached the 69 per dollar mark on Thursday due to high crude oil prices and weak macro-economic fundamentals.
At 2.44 p.m., rupee was at 68.92 against the previous closing level of 68.61 per greenback. The rupee’s last record low was 68.87 per dollar, hit on November 24, 2016.
According to analysts, demand for dollar is firm due to recent rise in crude oil prices. Also expectation of a wider current account deficit in the ongoing financial year (2018-19) further weakened the rupee, they said.
“The Indian rupee fell to a lifetime low today due to serval factors like rising dollar and crude aided by a wider current account deficit and continuous outflow from FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors) pushed the currency lower,” said Rahul Sharma, senior research analyst at Equity99, adding that FIIs have sold over Rs 40,000 crore in debt and equity so far this year.
If 69.5 level is taken out, then there might be a sharp depreciation in the rupee in coming days and it may move towards 72 per dollar mark in short term, Sharma told IANS.