Mumbai, Jun28 (IBNS): Extending its plunge from a 19-month low, the rupee fell past 69 per dollar on Thursday to hit the lowest in history, as crude prices continued their week-long rise reports said.
On Wednesday, the rupee had ended at 68.63, its worst ever closing price vis-à-vis the US dollar since August 28, 2013, and a day, after it was 69.09 per dollar at the interbank foreign exchange market.
The surge in prices of Brent crude on Thursday led to banks and importers, particularly oil refiners, rushing to buy the greenback.
After softening a bit following an announcement by OPEC that it will increase production, crude prices resumed their climb after the US pushed other countries to stop importing crude oil from Iran by November this year. Other factors weighing on the rupee were the weakness in its Asian peers like the Chinese yuan, the Singapore dollar, the Malaysian ringgit and the Indonesian rupiah. These currencies were all trading in the red because of heightened concerns of a trade war between US and China and fears that it will end up turning into a currency war.
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