Rupee trades at lifetime low levels, falls 18 paise against US dollar

New Delhi:The rupee continued its downward slide against the US dollar on Thursday, falling to a new record low in opening trade at 70.68 per US dollar.
At 9.29 am, the partially convertible rupee was trading 18 paise or 0.27% lower than Wednesday’s close at 70.77 against the US dollar.
Intra-day, however, the rupee fell as low as 70.80 against the US dollar at 9.18 am.
The rupee witnessed its second biggest single-day crash since August 13, when the unit crumbled 110 paise or 1.6%. The rupee previously had closed at a record low of 70.16 to the dollar on Monday.
The slide was triggered by factors like crude prices hitting multi-month highs fuelled by supply shocks along with concerns over widening current account deficit (CAD), said business news wire Reuters.
The rupee collapsed to another record low of 70.65 during the day as investors finally hit the panic button after reports highlighted risks of India breaching the 3.3% fiscal deficit target for 2018-19.
Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex recovered by 96.13 points, or 0.24%, to 38,819.06 in early trade.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)