The rupee on Thursday opened 33 paise lower at 70.79 against the US dollar. The domestic unit on Wednesday ticked higher by 3 paise to 70.46 amid weakness in the greenback and easing crude oil prices.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Wednesday left the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent while maintaining the stance of 'calibrated tightening' of policy.
In the equity market, benchmark indices extended their decline on Wednesday as trade war concerns resurfaced and the RBI maintained status quo on rates. Barring IT, all major sectors ended in the red. Midcap and small cap indices declined in tandem with benchmarks resulting in weak market breadth. The Nifty settled at 10782, down 87 points or 0.8 per cent for the day.
In the bond market, Government bonds gained sharply post RBI’s monetary policy meeting as the RBI reduced the inflation target range while a more dovish than expected meeting supported domestic debt.
Foreign institutional investors (FII) were net buyers to the tune of Rs 4.49 billion on December 4, 2018. FIIs have been net sellers of the more than Rs 9.30 billion in December 2018, according to ICICI Direct report.
On the global front, US stock futures tumbled on Thursday and Asian markets followed after Canadian authorities arrested a top executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies, fanning fears of further tensions between China and the United States.
Oil prices fell but trading was tepid ahead of a meeting by producer group OPEC that is expected to result in a supply cut aimed at draining a glut that has pulled down crude prices by 30 per cent since October.