The Indian rupee tumbled as much as 27 paise to a three-month low against the US dollar on Wednesday ahead of the third-quarter GDP data due later today. The rupee lost over 10 paise in the opening deals vs the US currency. The rupee had been broadly depreciating since the beginning of February 2018 on the woes of global sell-off, a 10% tax on LTCG and panic led by the nation’s biggest banking fraud at India’s second-largest PSU bank Punjab National Bank. The rupee crumbled 27 paise to a three-month low of 65.14 apiece US dollar at the interbank foreign exchange market on Wednesday. The Reserve Bank of Indian fixed a reference rate of 64.8514 against the US dollar on Tuesday. Earlier yesterday, the rupee got depreciated by 8 paise to 64.87 vs the US dollar.

Strengthening US dollar

The dollar stood near a three-week high against a basket of currencies on Wednesday, after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s upbeat views on the economy bolstered bets on further Fed interest rate hikes this year, Reuters said in a report. The new Chairman of US Federal Reserve Jerome Powell in his testimony before the US House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee recognised that the US economy had strengthened in recent past which led the market participants to increase bets on Fed rate hikes in 2018. The dollar index, which measures the US dollar against a basket of six major currencies, held steady at 90.372, after hitting a high near 90.5 on Tuesday, its strongest level in almost three weeks, Reuters reported.

Weakening crude oil

The crude oil prices inched lower on Wednesday following the weaker industrial data of China and Japan which raised a concern of an economic downturn that may diminish the demand for oil. US WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude fell 0.51% to 62.69 per barrel while Brent crude slumped 0.6% to 66.23 a barrel.

Indian equities shaky ahead of Q3 GDP

Indian equities started on a weaker note on Wednesday with Sensex slipping over 250 points and Nifty tripping below 10,500-mark ahead of the third-quarter GDP data. The S&P BSE Sensex lost 269.94 to hit a day’s low of 34,076.45 whereas NSE Nifty dropped below 10,500, shedding 92.75 points to mark a day’s low of 10,461.55.