Rupee falls 8 paise to 88.67 against US dollar in early trade
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee weakened 8 paise to 88.67 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday as equity market faced selling pressure amid global trade related uncertainties.
A weak American currency, lower crude oil prices and some inflow of foreign capital into domestic stocks failed to support the Indian currency, forex analysts said.
They said investors are concerned about increasing import bills and widening trade deficit of the country. Also, traders were keenly watching the progress on the proposed India-US trade deal as well as the domestic PMI data to be released later this week.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 88.67 and slipped to 88.69 level before inching up to 88.68 against the greenback in initial deals, registering a loss of 8 paise from its previous closing level.
On Monday, the rupee settled 7 paise higher at 88.59 against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.05 per cent lower at 99.43.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.47 per cent lower at USD 63.90 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex declined 151.86 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 84,799.09 in early trade, while the Nifty went down 44.50 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 25,967.30.
Foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 442.17 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.
The latest government data released on Monday showed India's exports contracted 11.8 per cent to USD 34.38 billion in October on account of the impact of high tariffs by the US, while the trade deficit widened to a record high of USD 41.68 billion, mainly due to a jump in gold imports.
The country's imports jumped 16.63 per cent to USD 76.06 billion due to high inbound shipments of the yellow metal, silver, cotton raw/waste, fertiliser, and sulphur.
In September, the trade gap widened to USD 31.15 billion, the highest in over a year.
While gold imports rose about 200 per cent to USD 14.72 billion, silver rose 528.71 per cent to USD 2.71 billion during October.
Crude oil imports dipped to USD 14.8 billion in October from USD 18.9 billion in the same month last year.
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Two girls injured in separate wolf attacks in UP's Bahraich
Bahraich (UP) (PTI): Two minor girls were injured in separate incidents of wolf attacks in the Bahraich district, forest department officials said on Saturday.
In the first incident on Friday, Anushka Nishad (5), daughter of Baliram from Mallahanpurwa village, was sleeping alone inside her house when a wolf entered and tried to carry her away, they said.
Hearing her screams, family members and villagers rushed to the spot. The wolf left the child, hearing the commotion, and ran towards the fields. The girl sustained minor injuries from the animal's teeth, the officials said.
Divisional Forest Officer Ram Singh Yadav described the attack as deliberate and cleverly planned, as it occurred precisely when Anushka's mother went out for a few moments.
On the same day, Nancy (4), daughter of Kamlesh Yadav, was playing outside her house in Baburi Tola village when a wolf suddenly attacked and dragged her away.
Villagers raised an alarm, and the wolf released the child and ran towards the sugarcane fields. The injured child was sent to the Kaiserganj Community Health Centre for treatment.
Divisional Forest Officer Ram Singh Yadav told reporters that both attacks involved wolves, adding that the entire area is plagued by the animal's activity.
Since September 9, such attacks in the Bahraich district have claimed 10 lives, including eight children and an elderly couple, and injured dozens of people, the officials said.
District Magistrate Akshay Tripathi met the families of the victims on Friday and consoled them.
