Indian rupee weakens against USD on coronavirus concerns

Source: Xinhua | 2020-03-20

The Indian rupee weakened on Thursday morning after opening at 74.95 to the U.S. dollar against the previous close of 74.26, tracking collapse in equities and currencies globally.

At 11:26 a.m. local time, the Indian currency was trading at 74.94 to the U.S. dollar.

"Any recovery is likely to be short lived wherein rupee can test levels of around 73.80-73.50. The larger trend continues to be weak for the domestic currency, given the economic blow from the coronavirus outbreak," said Sugandha Sachdeva VP-Metals, Energy & Currency Research, Religare Broking, a domestic brokerage house.

Concerns over economic damage caused by the coronavirus, along with exit of foreign investors, who have since January sold close to 10 billion U.S. dollars in debt and equity segment, also led to the rupee down fall.