Rupee Sees Worst Two-Month Slump

The rupee opened at 90.37 and touched an intraday low of 90.89, which is slightly above its lowest-ever closing amount.

The Wire Staff

The rupee opened at 90.37 and touched an intraday low of 90.89, which is slightly above its lowest-ever closing amount.

Representative image of a Rs 5 coin. Photo: Flickr/Just Jimish (CC BY 2.0).

New Delhi: The rupee had its worst one-day fall in two months on January 16 to close at 90.8650 per dollar.

The news agency PTI quoted forex traders as having said that a volatile global sentiment and a firm American currency accelerated the withdrawal of foreign institutional investors, even as domestic investors resorted to value buying.

Reuters cited a strong dollar demand from importers and the unwinding of positions in the offshore non-deliverable forwards (NDF) market. The agency quoted traders as having said that periodic dollar selling by public banks, likely acting on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), helped prevent a deeper fall.

Analysts who spoke to Reuters said that the downward pressure on the rupee may persist, particularly in the absence of an India-U.S. trade agreement. Data released on January 15 showed that India's trade deficit had widened slightly to $25.04 billion in December 2025, compared to $24.53 billion in November and $22 billion in December 2024. This could have led to the dip in the rupee, traders noted to PTI.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 90.37 and touched an intraday low of 90.89, which is slightly above its lowest-ever closing amount.

Anuj Choudhary, Research Analyst at Mirae Asset ShareKhan, told PTI that the dollar strengthened after better-than-expected US unemployment claims and manufacturing data.

"We expect the rupee to trade with a negative bias on uncertainty over trade deal talks and geopolitical tensions. A strong dollar, FII outflows from capital markets and elevated crude oil prices may pressurise the rupee," Choudhary said.

Meanwhile, as Times of India reports, the RBI is stepping up efforts to promote internationalisation of the Indian rupee by amending foreign trade rules to allow exporters more time to realise export proceeds when transactions are invoiced and settled in rupees, signalling a clear policy preference for Indian rupee-denominated trade.

This article went live on January seventeenth, two thousand twenty six, at thirty-nine minutes past one in the afternoon.

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