Rupee slips 34 paise to 71.66 against US dollar in early trade

Mumbai, Feb 3 () The rupee opened on a weak note and declined by 34 paise to 71.66 against the US dollar in opening trade on Monday, after the Budget 2020 disappointed market participants.

Forex traders said rupee weakened amid concerns of fiscal slippage and rising coronavirus outbreak fears.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget 2020 speech pegged the country's fiscal deficit at 3.8 per cent for the current fiscal, compared to the earlier target of 3.3 per cent of GDP

The rupee opened weak at 71.62 at the interbank forex market and then fell further to 71.66, down 34 paise over its last close.

The rupee had settled at 71.32 against the US dollar on Friday.

Market participants further said that factors like weak opening in domestic equities and foreign fund outflows weighed on the local unit, while easing crude oil prices supported the local unit to some extent.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.78 per cent to USD 56.18 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital markets, pulling out Rs 1,199.53 crore on Friday as per provisional data.

Domestic bourses opened on a cautious note Monday with benchmark indices Sensex trading 98.61 points up at 39,834.14 and Nifty down 6.65 points at 11,655.20.

On February 1, the BSE benchmark Sensex had logged its biggest single-day plunge in more than a decade after the Union Budget failed to live up to market expectations.

The benchmarks, which started on a shaky note on the Budget day, tanked soon after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pegged the fiscal deficit at 3.8 per cent for the current fiscal. DRR DRR