India News | Rupee Slips to 75.11 Against Dollar on Forex Outflows,

Mumbai, Feb 17 (PTI) The rupee on Thursday slipped to 75.11 against the US currency on Thursday due to forex outflows and lingering geopolitical tensions pushing investors towards safe-haven assets.

Forex traders said elevated crude oil prices and expectations of aggressive rate hikes by the US Fed weighed on the local unit.

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At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 74.94 against the American dollar but later dropped to a low of 75.18 against the greenback.

The local unit was quoted at 75.11 at close, down by 2 paise from the previous close of 75.09.

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Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.15 per cent higher at 95.84.

“The local unit is struggling near the psychological level of 75 as safe haven dollar remained in demand amid ongoing speculation of Fed tightening in March meetings along with geopolitical worries,” Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.

Spot USDINR expected to find support in the range of 74.90 to 75, while 75.70 remains the biggest hurdle, Parmar added.

The White House on Wednesday said that a Russian invasion of Ukraine can happen anytime now, as President Joe Biden announced plans to dispatch Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Tony Blinken to attend the Munich conference to meet world leaders and unite them against Moscow.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki anticipated that an attack could take place at any time.

“The rupee ended flat to marginally weak in a choppy trading session on Thursday. Initially the rupee started stronger tracking the weakness of the dollar which remained under pressure after investors deemed the Fed minutes as dovish,” said Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities.

However, after a brief appreciation the rupee gave up all its gains and ended lower amid weak risk appetite owing to renewed geopolitical concerns between Ukraine and Russia.

Additionally, Asian currencies were mostly weaker against the dollar on Thursday and weighed on sentiments.

Investors will continue to remain nervous till the tensions completely cool-off in Eastern Europe.

“Rupee traded volatile between 74.95-75.25 swinging both ways the entire day, uncertain issues between Russia and Ukraine along with Fed minutes update of not aggressive hikes kept rupee volatile,” Jateen Trivedi, Senior Research Analyst at LKP Securities.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share Sensex ended 104.67 points or 0.18 per cent lower at…