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The rupee touched its lowest-ever intraday level of 95.80 against the U.S. dollar, weakening for the fourth consecutive session on Wednesday (May 13, 2026) due to elevated crude oil prices and fear of a prolonged global trade disruption amid the West Asia crisis.
According to forex analysts, in the backdrop of surging crude oil prices, the government’s move to raise import duties on gold and silver may not be enough to ease the overall demand for the safe-haven greenback.
Effective May 13, the government raised import tariffs on gold and silver to 15% from 6% to curb overseas purchases of the metals and ease pressure on the country’s forex reserves.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee logged a fall of 21 paise during the session, and it hit the day’s high of 95.51 against the greenback, even though it opened the session at 95.52, 16 paise higher than its previous day’s closing level.
In the past three sessions, the Indian currency has lost 96 paise since May 7, when it ended at 94.22 against the U.S. dollar.
Anuj Choudhary, Research analyst at Mirae Asset ShareKhan, said the rupee hit a fresh record low on rising crude oil prices and a surge in inflation.
“Stalemate between the U.S. and Iran on peace talks has led to risk aversion in global markets. A strong dollar and FII outflows too pressurised the rupee,” he said and projected the USD-INR spot price to trade “in a range of ₹95.45 to ₹96.15”.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading at 98.46, up 0.29%.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading lower by 0.22% at $107.73 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share Sensex was trading 79.50 points higher at 74,638.74, while the Nifty was up 39.50 points to 23,419.05.
Foreign Institutional Investors offloaded equities worth ₹1,959.39 crore on Tuesday (May 12, 2026), according to exchange data.
On the domestic macroeconomic front, retail inflation inched up to 3.48% in April mainly due to higher prices of gold and silver jewellery as well as some kitchen items, according to government data released on Tuesday (May 12, 2026).
The Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation, with base year 2024, was 3.40% in March, 3.21% in February, and 2.74% in January.
Published – May 13, 2026 04:53 pm IST
