Mumbai, June 01: The rupee today crashed by 80 paise, the biggest single-day fall in fifteen months, against the US currency on a sudden bearish turn in equities amid stronger dollar overseas.
Dollar buying by banks, to meet their clients demand, and corporates on expectations of further rise in dollar abroad due to current global crisis, also weighed on the rupee, dealers said.
In fairly active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market, the domestic unit closed at 47.16/17, a steep fall of 1.73 per cent. Earlier, the rupee had ended lower by 81 paise on March 2, 2009.
The benchmark Sensex slumped by 372.60 points, or 2.20 per cent, on worries over the slow down in China’s and South Korea’s economic growth.
European stocks too were trading sharply lower while US stock index futures indicated remarkably weak opening on doubts over the global economic recovery.
–Agencies