At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 95.43 against the U.S. dollar, then touched an intraday low of 95.80 and finally ended the session at 95.67 (provisional). File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
The rupee depreciated 31 paise to close at 95.67 (provisional) against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday (June 3, 2026), after the U.S. Trade Representative proposed a 12.5% additional duties on Indian imports, citing labour violations. Forex traders said strong dollar demand, surging crude oil prices, geopolitical tensions, and relentless foreign capital outflows dented investor sentiment further.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 95.43 against the U.S. dollar, then touched an intraday low of 95.80 and finally ended the session at 95.67 (provisional), down 31 paise from its previous close. On Tuesday (June 2, 2026), the rupee depreciated 17 paise to close at 95.36 against the U.S. dollar.
Forex traders said the U.S. Trade Representative’s action, amid fresh hostilities and stalled talks between the U.S. and Iran, weighed on investor sentiment. The U.S. Trade Representative has proposed 12.5% additional duties on 54 countries, including India, for failing to prohibit the import of goods produced with forced labour.
Meanwhile, the government said India is engaged with the U.S. on the Section 301 investigations over concerns related to forced labour and excess industrial capacity. The country is also “parallelly” engaged with the U.S. for finalisation of an interim trade agreement, a framework for which was announced through a joint statement on February 7.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) launched two separate Section 301 investigations on March 11 and 12, 2026, covering 60 economies over concerns related to forced labour and excess industrial capacity. Meanwhile, market participants are now turning their attention to the Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI MPC) rate decision on June 5, as inflation, growth and the rupee are under focus.
The RBI Monetary Policy Committee meeting is scheduled for June 3-5. The six-member MPC, headed by RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, will announce its decision on June 5.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading at 99.34, up 0.13%. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading higher by 2.76% at $98.65 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex dropped 303.67 points to settle at 74,346.17, while the Nifty was down 77.95 points to 23,405.60. Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth ₹8,362.92 crore on a net basis on Tuesday (June 2, 2026), according to exchange data.
Published – June 03, 2026 05:43 pm IST
