The rupee recovered to a touch below 80 per dollar after hitting an intra-day all-time high of 80.15 on Monday, as the Reserve Bank of India defended the Indian currency even as the dollar soared to a new two-decade high.
Bloomberg quoted the rupee at 79.9675, compared to its previous close of 79.8712, after hitting a lifetime-low of 80.13.
Reuters had reported that the rupee hit an intra-day record low of 80.18 against the greenback, while PTI said the domestic fell 16 paise to close provisionally at 80 against the US dollar.
“The underlying tone for rupee is weak based on global tightening phase,” Arnob Biswas, head research at SMS Global Securities, told Reuters.
He reckoned that it was possible that the RBI may not intervene a lot and could allow the rupee to fall in the face of broad dollar strength.
The dollar index climbed to its highest level in 20 years, boosted by higher short-term US yields and risk aversion.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said restoring price stability will likely require maintaining a restrictive policy stance “for some time”, seemingly pushing back against expectations that the US central bank could cut rates later next year.