Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

The Rupee today hit a historic low of 71 against the US dollar, falling 26 paise in morning trade today.

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At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the local currency opened lower at 70.95 a dollar and slipped further to hit its lifetime low of 71 from its previous close of 70.74.

The Rupee is now the worst performing currency in Asia, it has fallen nearly 10 per cent this year. The Sensex was also down 32.76 points at 38,657.34 on Friday, while the Nifty was down 10 points at 11666.80.

Forex dealers said besides robust month-end demand for the American currency from oil importers, dollar's strength against its rival currencies on expectations of rising interest rates amid lingering China-US trade tensions weighed on the domestic currency.  

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On Thursday, the Rupee had slid 15 paise to close at a fresh lifetime low of 70.74 due to low demand for the US currency from importers and rising crude oil prices. A stronger dollar in overseas markets and losses in local stocks markets also impacted the rupee sentiment.

The BSE benchmark Sensex slipped 33 points, or 0.08 per cent to settle at 38,690.  The NSE Nifty had declined 15 points, or 0.13 per cent, to 11,677.  Intra-day, the 50-share index had moved between 11,698.80 and 11,639.70 on Thursday.