Rupee falls by 11 paise to 79.93 against US dollar in early trade

The rupee depreciated by 11 paise to 79.93 against the US dollar in opening trade on Wednesday, tracking the strength of the American currency overseas.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 79.93 against the greenback, registering a decline of 11 paise over its last close. In initial deals, the local unit also touched 79.86 against the dollar.

On Tuesday, the rupee depreciated 4 paise to close at 79.82 against the dollar.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.37 per cent to 110.62.

The global oil benchmark Brent crude futures fell 1.33 per cent to USD 91.60 per barrel.

According to Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury, Finrex Treasury Advisors, RBI keeps selling dollars to curb the rupee fall.

"All eyes will be on the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting as a 75 basis points rate hike gets discussed to bring inflation down," Bhansali said.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading 312.13 points or 0.53 per cent lower at 58,884.86, while the broader NSE Nifty was down 102.00 points or 0.58 per cent to 17,553.60.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market on Tuesday as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,144.53 crore, as per exchange data.