MUMBAI: The Indian rupee hit its all-time low on Wednesday, pressured by a pickup in the dollar as traders pondered a more cautious US rate cut cycle after data pointed to a resilient economy, while weakness in local equities also weighed.
The rupee declined to 85.8575 per US dollar before ending the session at 85.8450, down 0.1%.
Dollar sales from state-run banks helped limit the currency’s losses, traders said. The offers were most likely on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India but were not very aggressive, a trader at a foreign bank said.
The dollar index rose 0.1% while other Asian currencies slipped, led by a 0.2% decline in the offshore Chinese yuan and a 0.4% drop in the Indonesian rupiah.