Mumbai: The Indian rupee depreciated 18 paise to 73.68 against the US dollar in opening trade Monday, tracking a strong greenback in overseas market.
Forex traders said a muted trend in domestic equities also dragged the local unit down.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 73.63 against the dollar, then fell to 73.68, registering a decline of 18 paise from the last close.
In the previous session Thursday, the rupee had settled at 73.50 against the US dollar.
The forex market was closed Friday on account of ‘Ganesh Chaturthi’.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.09 per cent to 92.66.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market on Thursday as they purchased shares worth Rs 423.44 crore, as per exchange data.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share index was trading 257.89 points or 0.44 per cent lower at 58,047.18. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty was trading 69.60 points or 0.4 per cent down at 17,299.65.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures advanced 0.41 per cent to USD 73.22 per barrel.