The Indian rupee breached the 72 per US dollar mark for the first time on Thursday. Around 1 pm, the rupee traded around 72.05 per dollar, against Wednesday’s closing of 71.76 per greenback.
According to analysts, the fall in the rupee is due to the Sino-US trade tensions along with high crude oil prices and outflow of foreign funds.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said on Wednesday external factors had caused the depreciation of the rupee.
The pound sterling also finished higher at Rs 93.08/10 and Euro at Rs 83.6005 at the close of the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market.
Meanwhile, gold rallied by Rs 110 to Rs 31,510 per ten gram at the bullion market on Thursday, largely in sync with the overseas trend and increased buying by local jewellers.
The depreciating rupee, by making imports costlier, only aided the uptrend.
Silver also went up by Rs 200 to Rs 37,800 per kg on increased offtake by industrial units and coin makers.
Bullion traders said gold surged on the back of a firm global trend as the dollar weakened amid the US-China trade conflict.
Globally, gold rose 0.22 per cent to USD 1,198.90 an ounce and silver by 0.32 per cent to USD 14.21 an ounce in Singapore.
In Delhi, gold of 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity rallied by Rs 110 each to Rs 31,510 and Rs 31,360 per ten gram, respectively. The precious metal had gained Rs 200 in Wednesday’s trade.
Sovereign however remained unaltered at Rs 24,500 per piece of eight gram.
In line with overall trend, silver ready also gained Rs 200 to Rs 37,800 per kg and weekly-based delivery spurted by Rs 810 to Rs 37,115 per kg.
Silver coins remained unchanged at Rs 72,000 for buying and Rs 73,000 for selling of 100 pieces.