Rupee Falls 1.5%, Plunges To 74.47 Against Dollar Amid Rising Virus Cases

Rupee Vs Dollar Today: At the interbank foreign exchange market, rupee opened at 73.52 against the American currency and traded in the range of 73.52 to 74.50 throughout the session.

Suffering its biggest single-day fall in 20 months, the rupee plunged 105 paise against the US dollar on Wednesday, April 7, to settle at 74.47 (provisional), amid concerns over rising COVID-19 cases across the country. The local unit lost as much as 1.5 per cent in a single day as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its Monetary Policy Committee review, maintained the status quo on the key policy rates for the fifth time in a row.  At the interbank foreign exchange market, the domestic unit opened at 73.52 against the American currency and traded in the range of 73.52 to 74.50 throughout the session. The Reserve Bank also laid plans for a massive government bond-buying programme. The central bank maintained the repo rate -  the interest rates at which the RBI lends money to commercial banks, at four per cent, and the reverse repo rate - the rate at which RBI borrows money from banks, at 3.35 per cent. In an early trade session, the local unit fell 15 paise to 73.57 against the greenback.  Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six peers, declined 0.06 per cent to 92.28.  Almost all the other Asian currencies gained, tracking the U.S. bond yields that continued to retreat, easing pressure on regional assets. "The RBI policy was very interesting and it felt like a quantitative easing programme. The key take away is that the RBI will continue to maintain the ultra-loose monetary policy and infuse liquidity for a long time as Covid surge will keep imparting uncertainty to growth outlook. The RBI has reiterated that growth is the priority,'' said Mr. Rahul Gupta, Head Of Research- Currency, Emkay Global Financial Services